A pedestrian walks through a field, backdropped by the Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. Kendal coal-fired power station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, on Friday, May 5, 2023. We all know how divisive coal can be. Proponents for coal-fired power stations argue that it is essential for a country like South Africa to keep using this fossil fuel, especially in the short term because of our glaring energy.
This would imperil the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan and the money promised by international partners to wean the country off coal. The electricity minister’s basic premise is that coal is reliable, won’t take ages to come online as renewable energy would do and fixes the energy crisis in the short term.
South Africa is one of the highest carbon emitters globally and the highest on the continent, which is being hard hit by extreme weather events caused by climate change. According to a recent report by the forestry, fisheries and the environment minister, Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions have apparently decreased. The inventory shows that the country recorded a 0.8% decrease in carbon dioxide emissions between the years 2000 and 2020 — the period in which Covid regulations were introduced.
Providing renewable energy is not as easy as some people think. It’s not as simple as “here is solar and wind and now our power problems are sorted”. They need to be connected to a grid. Places like the Northern Cape produce solar energy but the grid is strongest in Mpumalanga where the coal and the coal-fired power stations are.
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Source: FinancialMail - 🏆 20. / 63 Read more »