From Climate Policy to Practice: Strengthening Accountability and Governance Reform through Youth Participation in the Local Government Elections

Abstract

Despite South Africa's increasingly sophisticated climate policy framework, a persistent and consequential gap remains between policy commitments and municipal-level implementation. Constrained budgets, institutional fragility and political instability leave municipalities reactive rather than preventative in their responses to climate risk, as reflected in the devastating 2022 KwaZulu-Natal floods. This article argues that strengthening youth participation in local government elections offers an underutilised mechanism for closing this gap. Electoral participation is reframed here not merely as a democratic obligation but as a form of climate governance, a means through which young citizens can pressure municipalities to translate sustainability commitments into tangible, community-centred action.