The main objective of the EnerKey project was to actively contribute to a sustainable energy supply and improved climate protection by developing and implementing an effective energy and climate protection concept in the Global City Region Gauteng. This goal was achieved through

  • strategic cooperation between research institutions, city administrations of the JET cities, companies and civil society organisations (NGOs),
  • the development and application of decision-support instruments and tools, and
  • the implementation of pilot projects and pilot applications.

As the continent's most important industrialised nation, securing the energy supply is of great importance in South Africa. At the same time, however, issues of distributive justice ("electricity for all") were also high on the political agenda in the post-apartheid era. While the energy supply of the middle and upper classes was very similar to that of industrialised nations in terms of demand structures and quantities as well as the technologies used, large sections of the very poor population faced completely different challenges: Respiratory diseases caused by local emissions and major fires in poor settlements due to unsafe appliances lead to hundreds of deaths every year. The issue of climate protection became much more important: South Africa used almost exclusively domestic coal and was only just behind Germany in terms of per capita C02 emissions. Globally, it was the 12th largest emitter and was responsible for approximately 40% of the African continent's emissions.

Cities play a decisive role in future energy consumption and CO2 emissions. They are characterised by high economic growth, intensive use of technology and a high concentration of expertise.

During the start-up phase of the EnerKey project, those responsible from research, city administration, companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) decided that a joint, integrated and interdisciplinary energy and climate protection concept would be of great importance for the sustainable development of the Gauteng Global City Region, which comprises the three major cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane (JET). In order to achieve the creation of such a concept, a competence network of South African and German research institutions, companies and organisations was formed in Gauteng with the support of important institutions.

The work of the EnerKey project was divided into eight modules on R&D, implementation and project management. In Module M 2 - "Stakeholders and socio-economic drivers", the IZT analysed and moderated the non-technical aspects of the decision-making and implementation process. Module 2 thus functioned as a complementary but closely interlinked counterpart to the integrated, computer-aided scenario analysis (using the TIMES model).

The IZT primarily analysed socio-economic aspects, investigated factors for energy consumption and energy supply and initiated measures for successful implementation. The IZT moderated a participatory stakeholder process that served both to gather information and to anchor the research results. The central element was the "EnerKey Long-term Perspective Group", in which the most important key players from administration, NGOs and industry were represented.

A detailed description of the IZT's work package can be found in the short description of the module "Integrated Stakeholder Processes and Socio-Economic Monitoring for the Development of a Climate Action Plan in the Gauteng Region, South Africa" (download).
You can find more information on the EnerKey project in general at: www.enerkey.info

More info