Green economy strategy for Gauteng

The GCRO’s work on the responses of cities and city-regions to the global financial crisis indicated that creating ‘green jobs’, and investing in a low carbon future, would be key to counter-cyclical spending world-wide. As a result the Gauteng MEC for Economic Development, Firoz Cachalia, asked GCRO to draft a ‘green economy’ strategy to feed into the evolving Gauteng Growth Employment and Development Strategy. GCRO co-ordinated the project, which involved Prof Mark Swilling and his team from the Sustainability Institute in Stellenbosch, colleagues from the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, and Frank Spencer of G-Tech Energy. A detailed strategy was submitted and presented to the MEC in January 2010. The strategy - ‘A developmental green economy for Gauteng’ - will be revised and refined, with the Department of Economic Development aiming to steer it through to becoming GPG policy.