WATCH: Energy emergency faces political inertia

While the country is in the grip of this 15-year-long energy crisis, there is another even slower-burning and longer-running  crisis that we have committed to tackle: climate change.

And we have committed to stimulating our moribund economy through infrastructure spending via the national infrastructure plan until 2050. It coincides with our net-zero target date of 2050, and so it seems fairly obvious that in this crisis there is a real opportunity to solve both crises through building climate-resilient, carbon mitigation infrastructure.

It’s tall order. But, thankfully, there’s a lot of work that’s been undertaken to model scenarios and provide pathways, capital investment costs and do-nothing risk analysis.

Today, we talk about the convergence of these issues and how we can build a coalition of the willing to help propel the country out of the grip of the immediate energy crisis, which is hammering confidence right now. Joining Michael Avery for this discussion is Joanne Yawitch, CEO of National Business Initiative; Dr Miriam Altman, director of Altman Advisory and professor of 4IR practice at the University of Johannesburg; as well as independent energy analyst Clyde Mallinson.