Just Transition

Climate adaptation strategies must fit the African context to work

Africa’s core economic sectors, including agriculture, mining, and energy, must urgently integrate climate change adaptation strategies to remain viable amid intensifying water scarcity, heat stress, and other climate-induced conditions.

The National Business Initiative (NBI) is an independent and voluntary coalition of South African and multinational businesses. It was launched in 1995 by the then President, Nelson Mandela, and represents more than 90 of South Africa’s largest companies.

The NBI runs multiple programmes aimed at enhancing corporate adaptation planning and resilience in South Africa in response to escalating climate risks. The country is experiencing heat stress, torrential and often fatal rainfall, drought, and other climate change-induced conditions. Over the past ten years, these events have become more frequent and severe, requiring more deliberate action from government, civil society, and the business sector.

One of these initiatives involves working with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), with the NBI as its local partner, to apply the council’s global guidance, Adaptation Planning for Business (June 2025), to the South African context. This is particularly important given the country’s socioeconomic challenges, including high unemployment and low economic growth. Businesses may be reluctant to alter operations or invest in costly climate adaptation measures, creating a critical challenge for a just transition that must also protect livelihoods.

These challenges are outlined in the research paper Transforming climate change adaptation in South Africa: Addressing leadership, governance, and community vulnerability through inclusive strategies and effective leadership. The authors found that climate change adaptation frameworks in South Africa face significant weaknesses, including fragmented leadership across government levels, weak accountability mechanisms, limited capacity and expertise, inadequate community involvement, insufficient funding, a short-term focus, bureaucratic delays, and poor integration of science into policy.

Alex McNamara, Head of the Environment Unit at the NBI, said the initiative recognises the critical role of climate change adaptation.

The NBI, in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers South Africa (PwC-SA) and the WBCSD, and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ-SA), is working with member companies to contextualise the WBCSD guidance. The aim is to strengthen business resilience and accelerate adaptation action, including exploring its interoperability with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework, McNamara said.

“Key challenges for South African companies include difficulty in building a strong business case for investment due to uncertainty in adaptation planning, a historical focus on mitigation measures, and the need for ongoing capacity building and peer-to-peer learning,” McNamara explained.

He added that effective resilience strategies require a strong understanding of vulnerability, followed by collaboration across sectors, supply chains, and geographical areas.

The WBCSD guidance introduces the concept of “collective resilience”, which refers to the capacity of a group to jointly absorb, recover from, and adapt to climate shocks, an approach considered essential for long-term sustainability.

“While some companies have successfully quantified physical climate risk, secured senior leadership buy-in, and integrated adaptation into existing strategies, collaborative work is less developed, although it is more advanced in South Africa’s water stewardship initiatives. The NBI will build a community of practice for member companies to support ongoing peer learning,” McNamara said.

He also noted that current corporate adaptation practices in South Africa align with the WBCSD’s step-by-step approach in areas such as securing internal buy-in, formulating appropriate adaptation solutions, and leveraging existing risk management processes to embed physical climate risks.

The NBI believes that country- and region-specific guidance is essential to scale and mainstream these efforts.

These voluntary corporate initiatives are gaining momentum as South Africa’s legal framework evolves to mandate climate action.

South Africa has a robust environmental justice sector, with organisations such as the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) actively engaging businesses on the importance of climate adaptation. WESSA also hosts workshops to unpack legislation such as the Climate Change Act of 2024. The Act is a landmark piece of legislation that establishes a legal framework for a national, coordinated response to climate change. It aims to drive a just transition to a low-carbon economy through sectoral targets, carbon budgets, and adaptation strategies, aligning South Africa with global efforts. Key provisions of the Act will be implemented in phases from March 2025.

Cindy-Lee Cloete, Chief Executive Officer of WESSA, said the Act challenges businesses to rethink their environmental impact. “Compliance is no longer optional, it is a requirement. But it is also an opportunity for companies to innovate, future-proof their operations, and contribute to a just transition that benefits both people and the planet,” Cloete said.