The Impediments Trade Agreements Pose to a South African Renewable Energy Industry

A report by: The Alternative Information & Development Centre

The World Trade Organisation (WTO), the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and similar international trade agreements are ambivalent, if not hostile, to state-led efforts to mitigate the worst effects of climate change and to resolve the unemployment crisis through a Just Transition. In this report, we highlight how such agreements further lock African states into the market-led free trade paradigm, which has led to deindustrialisation and increasing inequality between and within states.