Pressure is on to align energy plans

• Adding more coal-fired power ‘not a red line but won’t make things easier’

The financing promises SA has received from the US and countries in Europe are increasing pressure on the government to align plans for the future energy mix with carbon emission reduction commitments.

The financing promises that SA has received from countries in Europe and the US is increasing pressure on the government to align plans for the country’s future energy mix with carbon emission reduction commitments it made in 2021.

SA’s revised nationally determined contribution (NDC) submitted at COP26 last year committed it to reduce carbon emissions within a target range of 350-million tonnes to 420million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, a reduction of 20%-33% by 2030.

However, current energy planning and policies would make it difficult to reach these targets. The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) of 2019, which the department of mineral resources & energy has indicated is up for review, includes an additional 1,500MW of coal-fired power generation in the energy mix by 2030. This would be over and above Eskom’s new coal-fired power stations, Medupi and Kusile, which will lock in about 9,000MW of coal-fired power for the next 50 years.

At a media briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday, the UK’s COP26 envoy and chair of the international partners to the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), John Murton, said the partnership was conceived in light of SA’s “very ambitious and commendable nationally determined contribution that was set out before COP26”.

The JETP was launched at COP26 when the UK, the US and EU members undertook to mobilise an initial $8.5bn over the next three to five years to support SA’s transition to a lowcarbon economy.

“The JETP is about how we can support SA to achieve its NDC in a way that not only benefits the climate but stimulates the growth of the SA economy, creates employment and does so in a way that leaves noone behind,” Murton said.

US treasury climate counsellor John Morton expressed similar sentiments at a media briefing on Thursday. He said at a conference in Cape Town earlier in June that any new investment by SA in coal-fired power generation would be “inconsistent with the spirit and intent” of the $8.5bn funding package.

At Thursday’s briefing Morton said he would not call new investment in coal-fired power by SA a “red line” ,but “new coal certainly didn’t make [achieving SA’s NDC] easier”. The JETP supported SA’s ambition to achieve the “lower end of the NDC” and an “expedited energy transition in SA away from a high coal and carbon [intensive energy] toward a clean air and greener energy mix”, he said.