South Africa is the 'green energy innovator'

South Africans - well...most of them anyway - have two key strengths that we often overlook.

Those strengths are (a) the ability to hatch a plan from nothing (very much like MacGyver) and the seemingly magical power of (b) getting groups of people to work together to achieve a common goal (at times this superpower's existence may feel debatable, but South Africans are inherently world champions at diplomacy).

Drawing on the old adage that 'one should never waste a good crisis' to accelerate change and innovation, our 15-year long, anxiety-inducing frustration with Eskom and loadshedding is actually now serving as a catalyst for the most remarkable new energy plan that might just be a good blue print for how the world could transition to a cleaner energy future.

The Just Energy Transition Investment Plan  (JET-IP) is an astoundingly clever plan to accelerate the adoption of clean renewable energy, funded by international partners (mainly Western countries that are obliged to help) and designed to positively impact individuals and communities.

It's a plan that addresses climate change, green energy and job creation all in one neat little package.

It's literally an energy plan that works for everyone.

One of the major challenges that climate change solutions have is that not everyone agrees with the way forward, because all too often the design of these plans does not equate to evenly distributed benefits for all.

Collaboration is key, but achieving it has been impossible until now.

Step in South Africa - it's natural resources, planning ability and diplomacy and out pops a blueprint for how developing nations might realistically transition themselves off a dependancy on coal.

Amid a sea of intoxicatingly morbid news that has been endlessly spewing gleefully out of media establishments for years, this story represents a radical discontinuity from that misery.

South Africa - the green energy innovator of the world? Who would have seriously thought it?

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