Scathing criticism by the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) of the insufficiency of the energy ministry’s plan to tackle South Africa’s power supply crisis, ‘highlights the schism in government caused by a reliance on coal for power generation’, according to Bloomberg.
The news agency reports that the PCC also said that the ministry’s lack of attention to air quality and climate change puts it in conflict with the law and international agreements.
The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), developed by the energy ministry, is currently open for public comments. Amendments may be made before it is finalised in May.
Bloomberg reports that energy minister Gwede Mantashe is reluctant to move away from fossil fuels, saying they are necessary for electricity supply and employment. But South Africa is the world’s 15th-biggest producer of climate-warming greenhouse gases, and has one of the world’s most carbon-intensive economies. Air pollution to the east and south of Johannesburg is among the world’s worst, due to a concentration of coal-fired power plants, petrochemical complexes and other heavy industry.
The PCC said: ‘The IRP does not address its primary energy security objective and does not provide any analysis to show how this might be achieved in the short term. The IRP does not effectively address the issues of climate change and air quality’.
Another concern from renewable energy advocates is that a plan to build more than 100GW of power generation capacity by 2050 from a variety of sources is not sufficiently ambitious.
[Image: Ashes Sitoula on Unsplash]