Overview of CSI spend on environment in 2024

National context of environment in South Africa

• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) was allocated R8.7 billion in 2024/25, constituting 0.4% of the consolidated government expenditure bill of R2.37 trillion, a decrease from R9.9 billion in 2023/24. As per the DFFE’s annual performance plan, the largest allocations are R2.7 billion to environmental programmes and R1.3 billion to biodiversity and conservation. 
• The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) took place in December 2023 in Dubai, during which for the first time nearly 200 countries agreed on the need to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. The Loss and Damage Fund was established with initial commitments of US$770 million to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters.  
• According to the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, the majority of South Africa’s electrical energy in 2023/24 was generated from coal (78% of total system demand), with renewable energy supplying 9% of the demand. The South African system was unable to provide 4% of the electricity demand. Last year was the worst for load-shedding on record, with the country experiencing outages on 335 of 365 days. However, by 20 September 2024, there had been 177 consecutive days of uninterrupted power supply.  
• The Just Transition survey, administered as part of the 2023 HSRC South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), found that very few South Africans (9%) have heard the term ‘Just Transition’ and know what it means. A majority of South Africans (62%) approve of the transition away from coal, but there are concerns about potential impacts, with one-third of respondents concerned about high electricity prices and 32% worried about job losses. 
• The WWF’s 2024 Living Planet Report found that the average population sizes of more than 5 000 species declined by 73% in the 50 years from 1970 to 2020.  
• The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) took place in October 2024 in Colombia. It focused on taking stock of national biodiversity strategies and action plans for meeting the Global Biodiversity Framework, increasing the finance available for nature protection and restoration, and a global agreement to combat biopiracy by requiring users to pay for genetic information from nature.  

Overview of CSI spend  

Environment was supported by 44% of companies and received 5% of average CSI expenditure. 

Area of intervention

Average % CSI environment spend 2024 n=18

27% Waste management/recycling

17% Awareness programmes

12% Water conservation/ westlands management

10% Biodiversity/alien clearing

8% Climate change

8% Infrastructure, facilities and equipment

7% Urban greening

6% Wildlife conservation

5% Non-specific general donations

• Waste management and recycling received the largest share of CSI spend in the environmental sector (27%), followed by awareness programmes (17%), and water conservation and wetlands management (12%). 
• The level of support for biodiversity management was the same as in 2023 at 10% of environmental spend.  
• Although urban greening (7%) and wildlife conservation (6%) received smaller proportions of the average CSI spend in this sector, it was slightly more than the spend in 2023 (2% and 5% respectively).