Author(s)

E. TYLER & B. COHEN

Abstract

This paper explores the proposition that a complex systems approach may provide a useful conceptual underpinning for understanding and developing domestic climate mitigation policy in a developing country, using South Africa as a case study.
Framing South African climate mitigation policy as a system contextualised by, and radically open to, the broader South African social, technological, economic, environmental, physical and political system highlights the properties and mechanisms of complex social systems, thereby re-ordering policy priorities and leverage points. But further, a complexity frame or paradigm is a radical departure from its modernist predecessor. The complexity principles that underpin this frame suggest different entry points, foci and practices as being appropriate for the South African climate mitigation policy community.

Keywords

climate mitigation, complex dynamic systems, complexity thinking, developing country, policy, South Africa