Firms 'profiting off climate crisis'

Companies including the Boston Consulting Group and big accounting firms have been named in a damning report

- Aarti Bhana

Major consulting companies and some of the big accounting firms operating in South Africa are cashing in on the climate crisis, despite conflicts of interest, and a lack of expertise and ambition, undermining South Africa’s just energy transition, a recent report by nonprofit accountability organisation Open Secrets revealed.

The investigation highlighted that management consultants and institutions linked to donor countries are receiving the lion’s share of the grant funding meant for South Africa’s just energy transition projects.

The international financial pledge towards South Africa’s shift from coal to cleaner sources of energy — while ensuring that coal-dependent communities and workers are not left behind — is $12.8 billion and $2.8 billion of pledged funds has actually been committed to projects, according to Open Secrets. A total of $100 billion is said to be needed for the country’s just transition.

“Much of the grant funds are caught in a circular process that sees little money arriving on the ground in South Africa,” the report states.

“Instead, it ‘passes through’ South Africa only to again make its way into the hands of international players. Where it is paid to South African entities, many of them are private consultants working for international firms.”

The findings show that 65% of the committed grant funds have gone to private corporations and organisations as implementing entities and less than 25% of the grant monies has gone to local implementing entities, including nongovernmental organisations, public sector institutions and universities, lead investigator Zen Mathe said.