With a focus on accelerating climate action, last week’s two-day TEDx Johannesburg brought together leading changemakers to explore solutions to the climate crisis, under the theme of a greener, fairer, thriving future.
Held at NIROX Sculpture Park in the Cradle of Humankind, the event engaged participants deeply with the climate crisis, sparking conversations and solutions. Among the speakers was Leanne Emery-Hunter, the CEO of Tshikululu Social Investments.
Addressing delegates, Emery-Hunter explored how South Africa can turn crises into opportunities for sustainable growth. Drawing on Tshikululu’s experience with communities and the Just Energy Transition, she highlighted the country’s extraordinary potential for adaptation, and the need for true resilience which requires aligning human capability, innovation, and capital.
South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, the country’s roadmap for moving from coal to a low-carbon economy, estimates that $98 billion will be needed over five years. “This doesn’t cover everything we will need to complete the transition, but it’s a good start,” she says.
To date, approximately $11.5 billion has been pledged by partners including the UK, Germany, the US, and the EU. “But here’s the problem. More than half of that is loans, which must be repaid; approximately a quarter is commercial investment seeking returns and only about seven percent, less than $1 billion, is grants. For every Rand we raise for resilience, ninety-three cents must be repaid — often in foreign currency,” she explains. “That’s not resilience, that’s fragility, financed”.
In her keynote, Emery-Hunter outlined practical strategies for financing resilience, drawing on examples such as the Galápagos debt-for-nature swap, to show how catalytic capital and blended-finance can unlock impactful projects at scale, driving environmental restoration, job creation, and economic stability.
In South Africa, the Green Outcomes Fund is a good example of this, an outcomes-based fund that blends government and donor grants with concessional loans to incentivise investment in “green” small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). A 100-million-rand public investment mobilised four times that in private capital, creating jobs and building resilience.
“Imagine it is 2040. Load-shedding is history, water flows, land regenerates, and cities run on clean energy. Communities once facing unemployment thrive through green enterprises: repairing, recycling and restoring. Our financial markets have evolved, and resilience is now a core metric, not an afterthought,” she says.
In this scenario 15 years from now, she adds that banks and pension funds confidently back sustainable infrastructure, insurance rewards adaptation, and green finance flows through strong local institutions. “Right now, resilience feels like our national personality – forged by challenge, ready for renewal. That’s the South Africa we could build if we learn to move from finite capital to infinite resilience”.
South Africa needs inclusive, climate-smart governance, capacity-building, and innovative financial models that truly empower communities. “A greener, fairer, and thriving South Africa is possible when capital meets capability with purpose and foresight,” she says.
