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<v ->Founded by President Mandela in 1995,</v>

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the NBI is a membership-based organization,

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and essentially, our mission

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is around responsible corporate citizenship.

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We focus on issues such as environment, climate, water,

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and energy, youth employability, as well as,

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work to support the capacity of government.

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<v ->A couple of years ago, we started to look</v>

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into the economic impacts of climate change,

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and we found that people were asking the wrong questions.

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They were asking, can we afford to transition?

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And the reality was, can we afford not to transition?

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A just transition in South Africa is critical.

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We can't just talk about net zero by 2050,

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and think about climate transitions as purely technical.

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South Africa's unique triple bottom line of poverty,

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inequality, and unemployment really drives the kinds

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of analysis that we need to do.

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<v ->It was critical to establish a fact base,</v>

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so that we could really address the key issues around

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what it's gonna take for South Africa to get to net zero,

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and how can we ensure a just transition.

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For example, do we just need to solve

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for creating net-positive jobs, or do we actually also need

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to solve for moving people from

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the northeast of the country,

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where we have a lot of the coal value chain jobs,

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to the southwest of the country,

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where we may have better renewable energy resources?

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Number two, it helped us address what are some

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of the solutions for actually addressing these key issues,

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and solutions that are not just theoretical in nature,

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but actually have practical implementation.

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For example, what sort of policy regulations do we need

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in our energy landscape in order to encourage investment

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in more renewables?

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And lastly, it helped us move away

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from ideological discussions.

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It allowed us to start from a position

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of common understanding and really helps us drive

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towards a collaborative way of working towards a solution.

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<v ->NBI and BCG have worked very well together</v>

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on this project, combining our respective skill sets

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and the deep analytics of BCG and the expert views,

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and the local context and political specialty of the MBI.

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<v ->In South Africa, we tend to think that everything</v>

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that happens in South Africa is unique.

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Being able to benefit from thinking,

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and comparative experience, and what has worked

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or not worked in other places has been really important.

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<v ->And one amazing moment in the project was we had all</v>

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of our CEO champions around the room saying,

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look, this work is great.

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We all agree.

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This is the right way forward.

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How do we have this conversation with government?

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And at the same time, we had the chair

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of the Presidential Coordinating Commission

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on Climate Change sitting in the room saying,

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look, I've seen the analysis.

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It's amazing work.

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I'm gonna make sure that I take this to government.

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I'm gonna make sure we can drive a cohesive discussion

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between business and industry.

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<v ->Reaching that point where we realized that decarbonizing,</v>

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in particular the power sector, was something

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that was really possible, something that we could do

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inside the timelines required by science,

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and at very low cost to the economy.

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And seeing how stakeholders responded and how positively

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they responded was a really exciting moment.

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<v ->When we started this work, I wasn't certain</v>

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that South Africa could in fact get to net zero by 2050.

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And I think for me,

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that has been the most fundamental change, to realize

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that actually there are pathways.

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They're not simple, they're not easy,

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there are very big challenges in the way

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of the implementation, but in actual fact,

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there is a way that one can do it.