After two decades of unduly prolonged negotiations that characterized the Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings, the international system only recently witnessed a substantive globally acceptable climate regime, the Paris Agreement (PA). The less legally binding and largely voluntary agreement establishes, amongst other things, a common framework for all Parties aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) to not more than 2°C and more significantly, 1.5°C above the pre-industrial levels. Although the agreement admits that an economy driven by clean energy is indispensable to sustainable development, its demand of a rapid end to fossil fuel places a burden on South Africa to replace its coal and gas with clean energy sources. Meeting such demand, when no credible alternatives are put in place, would only exacerbate poverty for the millions of South Africans whose livelihood and businesses are largely sustained by coal-powered electricity. The objectives of this paper are to: (1) assess the Paris climate agreement and its feasibility; (2) appraise South Africa’s coal-dependent economy; (3) suggest adjustment options aimed at dealing effectively with the situation, and also providing support for the aggregate welfare of South Africans. This article adopts the ‘complex interdependence’ and ‘green’ theories.

Climate change is a global challenge. Its ramifying effects on both natural and human systems cut across different regions of the world. While Africa as a whole is being confirmed to be more affected by climate change due in part to a relatively low(er) mitigation and adaptive capacity, coupled with a situation where majority of its population depends mainly on natural resources, Southern Africa is singled out as a potentially vulnerable subregion for other additional factors. Representing a milestone in the trajectory of the global climate change process, the 21st session of the Conference of Parties (COP-21) resolved with a consensual climate change deal known as the Paris Agreement. The Agreement, through the instrumentality of a ratchet up mechanism, otherwise described as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), seeks significant cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions effectively from 2020. In essence, it calls for a novel though gradual shift from carbon-emission approach to low emission development strategy. This, no doubt, is indispensable to sustainable development at all levels. Beyond national commitments as obligatory for parties, there is a need for regional cooperative efforts which should bring about shared appropriate policy responses that promote green energy as well as seize opportunities inherent in it for national and deterritorialised gains. Adopting neoliberal and green theories, the institutional framework of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) where South Africa is expected to take a lead is examined in this article.

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Africa's external relations have in general received inadequate scholarly attention. Dawn Nagar and Charles Mutasa seek to address this shortfall through their volume, Africa and the World: Bilateral and Multilateral International Diplomacy, an edited compilation of thoughts and perspectives on Africa's multifaceted interactions with the rest of the world. Together with other contributors, Nagar and Mutasa contextualize the diverse patterns of Africa's external relations during and after the Cold War through case studies of core bilateral and multilateral issues to empirically underpin their central thesis: Africa's relations with key external state actors and multilateral institutions have historically been nebulous and insecure. The case studies are diverse and comprehensive, one example being the military cooperation which identified Angola, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, and Somalia as main beneficiaries of Washington's military supports for the continent and, conversely, Nigeria, Zimbabwe under Mugabe, Sudan, and the Central Africa Republic as hesitant regarding their military relationships with the United States. They also examine, among other topics, economic relations, focusing particularly on China's non-interference trade deals with Africa as alternative to Western conditionalities and political interferences, and African migration to Europe, with Libya as a notable Mediterranean outward-bound, constituting first thematic priority in Italy's engagement with Africa. Unfortunately, the same central argument could not be reinforced with sufficient theoretical foundations, save for mere mentioning and scanty exposition of the underlying principles of realism, neoliberalism, Marxism, and the Westphalian model as applicable theoretical paradigms. Besides, the contributors to the book relied merely on a qualitative case studies approach, which is not adequate for this study. By raising specific concerns about Africa's dynamic and complex composition of 55 (rather than 54) formally sovereign states with divergent and, perhaps, largely irreconcilable engagements outside its continental confines, Nagar and Mutasa suggestively drag the book into the borderline politics around the statehood of Western Sahara and Somaliland (Bereketeab, ed., Self-Determination and