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The CSIR’s Environment and research economics (ERE) group acknowledges the need for further social and economic development in South Africa so as to address key challenges such as poverty and unemployment. However, under the current development paradigm, economic development is coupled to the exploitative use of natural resources. In particular, South Africa remains primarily a resource-based economy, and hence much of its future economic development (under the current paradigm) will place increasing demands on the country’s natural resources, including water, energy and raw materials, and lead to high levels of pollution and waste generation.
We believe South Africa can achieve sustainable social and economic development so as to support poverty alleviation and job creation, without exploitative use of the natural resource base. In other words, we believe in a new development paradigm under which development is decoupled from exploitative use of these resources.
We achieve this by conducting research and development into economic tools which measure and monitor development and its impact on the natural resource base so as to inform decision making, and which influence decision making and behaviour with respect to development and use of natural resources, including
- Valuation tools (measure/monitor impact of development on the natural resource base)
- Monitoring and trade-off analysis tools (measure/monitor development (various indicators of sustainable development, including new tools such as inclusive wealth) and compare development options/trade-offs (e.g. cost-benefit analysis) and
- Economic instruments/incentives (influence decision making and behaviour).
Our research focuses on the areas of water, energy and waste. We measure, monitor and influence behaviour around
- input usage, for example
- reducing water, energy and raw material consumption
- changing patterns of water, energy and raw material consumption by promoting the use of renewable resources (renewable energy), and promoting the use of waste as a resource (waste-to-energy) and
- output generation (promoting reduction, recycling and re-use of waste).
Current projects
- Development of a trans-disciplinary environmental economics framework (social-ecological system economics) to support the advancement of sustainability science in South Africa: A case study of biofuels development within the energy sector
- Valuing the external costs (social and environmental externalities) associated with landfill disposal in the City of Cape Town
- Developing a Bioenergy Systems Sustainability Assessment and Management guidance tool for policy, decision making and integrated bioenergy supply
- Economic impacts of increased water tariffs for the Western Cape economy
- Restoration of natural capital in the Baviaanskloof mega reserve, South Africa – investigating the impact on sustainability of different approaches to restoration and benefit sharing using ‘Inclusive wealth’
- A comparison of the costs associated with pollution prevention measures with the costs of treating polluted water resources
- Applying remote sensing to value water in the Sandveld, Western Cape
- Development of a framework for Applied Integrative Sustainability Thinking (A-IST): Putting sustainability science into practice in Environmental Assessment & Management (EA&M)
- Cost effectiveness analysis of the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning’s Provincial Air Quality Management Plan
- Assessing water use and economic value of indigenous tree biomass under natural and plantation conditions.
Past projects
- Evaluation beyond valuation: The role of environmental and resource economics in supporting the advancement of sustainability science in South Africa
- Economics and ecology of ecosystems: Unlocking the complexity needs of sustainable development at the system scale
- Mapping the flows of ecosystem services and benefits provided by ecosystems at multiple scales in the Inkomati water management area, South Africa: A spatial and economic assessment (in association with the NRE biodiversity & ecosystem services group)
- Estimating the opportunity cost of sand mining in the eThekweni municipality
- Cost-benefit analysis on research into biological control of invasive alien plants in South Africa (in association with the NRE biodiversity & ecosystem services group)
- The role of economic instruments in driving changes in waste management
- Development of a climate change response strategy for the Western Cape
- Evaluation of the costs of climate-change adaptation: a case study of supplying water and sanitation to low income urban and rural areas of eThekwini municipality, South Africa
- Assessment of long-term climate change mitigation scenarios for South Africa (contribution to the Energy Research Centre project)
- Development of a Greenhouse Gas Information Management System (contribution to the Energy Research Centre project)
- South Africa’s climate change technology needs assessment report
- Assessment and valuation of ecosystem services in the Succulent Karoo biome
- Audit on research capacity in the economics of global change (including climate change) to inform a medium-term programmes to build research capacity in South Africa
- Opportunities and constraints associated with using market-based policy instruments in the field of solid waste management in South Africa (in association with the NRE Pollution and waste competency area)
- Ecological-economic modelling to support sustainable land-use management and decision / policy making in climate-change mitigation
- The economic impact and appropriate management of selected invasive alien species in Africa
- How can payments for watershed services help manage watersheds sustainably and fairly? Fair deals for watershed services in South Africa
- Economic value of and mechanisms for financing biodiversity and conservation in the Wild Coast
- Economic value of and impacts of pollution and degradation in the Kongweni Estuary, Margate, KwaZulu-Natal
- An inventory of current ecosystem service payments, markets, and capacity building in South Africa
- Impacts of human activities in the Incomati Catchment on the shrimp industry in Maputo Bay
- Economic valuation of external welfare impacts of the proposed Gautrain Rapid Rail Link from Pretoria to Hatfield Station
- An analysis of the social, economic and environmental direct and indirect costs and benefits of water use in irrigated agriculture and forestry. A case study of the Crocodile River Catchment, Mpumalanga
- Environmental impacts of the forestry industry in South Africa
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