Three senior South African government officials he said Reuters reported on Thursday that South Africa will not meet its climate change targets under the Paris Agreement because shutting down the country’s eight coal-fired power plants would trigger a massive energy crisis.
South Africa’s big loss is no small thing for the climate change movement because, as Reuters pointed out, it is “the world’s 11th largest emitter of greenhouse gases and has one of the highest per capita emissions Of the world”.
The original plan called for South Africa to shut down six of its coal-fired power plants by 2030 and two more by 2034. Officials who spoke to Reuters said those targets are now considered “unrealistic”, although the government could establish a “new decommissioning target for 2035”.
South Africa’s environment ministry issued a statement saying it was “too early” to conclude that the 2030 Paris Agreement targets cannot be met.
South Africa is already in the middle of a major energy crisis, even with all those collapsing coal plants. The World Bank announced By mid-October, negotiations were underway for a billion-dollar loan to help South Africa recover from blackouts that have slowed economic growth.
The World Bank has already lent $497 million to South Africa’s state utility Eskom by 2022 to decommission one of its coal-fired power plants. The plant, an aging facility located near the town of Komati, east of Johannesburg, was Closed last October, but the “cleaner energy transition” was a disaster.
The South African government did not consult with the 1,600 local workers employed at the Komati plant or help them find new jobs. Energy officials worried that the loss of the plant would endanger the power grid, sowing panic, confusion and dashed hopes that the Komati plant could be reopened.
Eskom estimates that roughly 80 percent of South Africa’s energy comes from its coal-fired power plants, which are becoming unreliable due to mismanagement and corruption. Instead of “transitioning” to green energy, South Africa is leaning on its coal plants more heavily than ever as it experiences the worst blackouts in its history.
The South African government has said it would need about $80 billion to finance a proper transition to green energy, a sum that seems highly unlikely to come through.
The United Nations published a report on Wednesday that said governments around the world planned to exceed the Paris Agreement’s limits on fossil fuels by more than 110 percent by 2030. Reaching the Paris Agreement’s limits would require the near-total shutdown of coal-fired power plants by 2040, but the heaviest coal users, China and India, are still increasing its coal generator capacity.
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