Reframing Climate Justice in South Africa: Addressing the Socio-Political, Economic, Land and Soil Dimensions of Environmental Inequality

Socio-spatial inequality remains a defining feature of climate vulnerability in South Africa, where historically formed patterns of segregation continue to shape uneven access to infrastructure, services, and environmental resources. This study presents a narrative review of how historical spatial planning has structured persistent disparities in exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity across urban and rural landscapes. Evidence from the literature demonstrates that apartheid-era spatial planning established durable inequalities in water and sanitation provision, green infrastructure distribution, and proximity to environmental hazards, which continue to influence contemporary climate risk profiles. These inequalities are further reinforced through socio-economic stratification, particularly in the context of energy transitions, where access to private renewable energy systems is concentrated among wealthier households, while poorer communities remain dependent on unstable public electricity infrastructure. The review also incorporates land and soil systems as critical but often minimized dimensions of vulnerability, showing how soil degradation and unequal access to productive land contribute to livelihood insecurity and reinforce rural and peri-urban marginalization. In addition, emerging responses such as just transition frameworks, grassroots environmental justice movements, and energy democracy initiatives are examined with regard to the structural constraints that limit their effectiveness in addressing entrenched inequalities. Overall, the analysis highlights that climate vulnerability in South Africa is deeply embedded in historical and ongoing socio-spatial and socio-economic inequalities that continue to shape differentiated environmental outcomes.