Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

25 November 2025

2-minute read

Plans for the release of a long-awaited, IPEP, the Illustrated People’s Energy Plan, was unveiled at the ‘We the 99% People’s Summit’ at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg last week.

Coinciding with both the G20 Summit and the National Business Initiative’s Summit, James Reeler, senior climate specialist at WWF SA, says that the purpose of the IPEP is to plan and integrate the different elements of energy like gas, transport and electricity.

The “rigorous model” initiated by the University of Cape Town’s Energy Resource Systems Group and other civil society organisations, is the first of its kind in SA. James mentions that their aim was to “set the stage” to outline factors that civil society is looking for, like environmental impact and providing increased energy access.

While all countries are working to reduce emissions, some are completely dependent on fossil fuels, as South Africa is on coal, making it more difficult for them to be part of the movement towards renewable energy and the integrated energy plan. Examples of countries with current working energy models include the UK who ware already on 80% renewables, and there are lessons that we can learn from them. Certain countries have also introduced electric mobility and renewable thermal heating for a just energy transition.

Climate specialists are “not really optimistic,” James says, that the project will be successful, and have chosen to follow “the least costs pathway” while ticking all the boxes from civil society to labour. The IPEP is not the only route, but it is a very transparent one, where the public is consulted along the way so that the model can be interrogated and understood, and underlying assumptions can be dispelled.

The ideal, he says, would be electrification of the public transport sector and the developmental goal of an increase of free electricity capable of meeting basic energy needs that would give low-income households more money for other basic needs, leading to more employment in the energy sector and an overall GDP growth. “It’s not a trade-off between one or the other,” he emphasizes. According to James, although this model is not an ideal scenario, “it is indicative of what is possible.”

Listen to the full interview with Ml Junaid Kharsany and James Reeler here.