Green economy baseline study for Limpopo province: final report

South Africa, like many other developing countries, faces persistent challenges of poverty and unemployment. Additional challenges that the country faces include threats of environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and the effects of climate change. These challenges also represent opportunities for the transition towards a green economy. However, the opportunities represented by such a transition need to ensure that the resultant development pathway addresses the immediate and pressing development concerns and short-run poverty alleviation objectives, in addition to creating a long-run, low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathway for the country. Evidence shows that transition to a green economy is already underway in South Africa, a point underscored by this report and a growing wealth of literature by various organisations (e.g. government departments, universities, research institutions, civil society etc.). For example, South Africa has put in place policies and plans to promote green growth as a new source of growth for addressing the environmental and socio-economic challenges facing the country. The policies and plans stress the need for transforming the South African economy to embrace equity, sustainable development and emphasise opportunities to the transition to the green economy. However, for the Limpopo Province, the challenge is to identify and profile various green economy activities being implemented in the Province, as well as their impacts, and then to build on this momentum. Therefore, this project focuses on gathering information about current, emerging and planned green economy activities in the Limpopo Province. The information provided would give insight into the profile of green economy activities currently underway in Limpopo Province, their progress, expected and realised impacts, lessons learnt and the challenges that they face. The information would be used to help profile and inform future design and support for green economy activities in Limpopo Province.