Summary:
- Between the green economy (GE) and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0/ 4IR), there are new opportunities and challenges for industrialisation within Southern African Development Community (SADC).
- If Industry 4.0 is democratised and the GE takes hold, whole new industrialisation pathways – including GE clusters, bioeconomy clusters, and novel Industry 4.0 platforms – will open up.
- Business can also capture Industry 4.0 benefits through monopolising first-mover advantages and pre-empting sustainability.
- Greenwashing and carbon washing could create many potentially undesirable futures, such as gig-economy sweatshops and e-commerce-platform monopolies.
- Policies should seek to hasten innovation to amplify pockets of desired emergent futures.
- Key policies needed are those to improve readiness for 4IR, support sectors (especially mining) to shift towards a circular economy, and support the development of strong service sectors (‘industries without smokestacks’) among others.
