The 'capability' of South African energy governance to deliver urban sustainable transitions

This is the author accepted manuscriptData Availability Statement: Transcripts of the interviews have been lodged with the Economic and Social Research Council Data Archive at the University of Essex: Caprotti, F. & Phillips, J. (2020). Urban transformation in South Africa through co-designing energy services provision pathways 2016-2019. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 853812, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDASN-853812Critical to the trajectory and outcome of urban sustainable energy transitions is the ability of government institutions to foster conditions for change and innovation. In this paper, a theoretical perspective combining state power and local governance capability is used as a lens to examine the transition of the energy system in South Africa based on semi-structured interviews with a range of relevant stakeholders, supplemented by analysis of published academic and policy literature. The discussion highlights uneven transitional pathways across the country caused by variations in ‘capability’, together with continuing conflicting interests within the system which require more politically-informed policy processes.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC