Environment minister backs big plan to cut load shedding

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Barbara Creecy, says that slowing the decommissioning of coal power plants is allowed in terms of environmental law.

Speaking during a National Council of Provinces Q&A, the minister said that it would be counterintuitive to shut down the operating coal units amid an electricity crisis.

Citing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s weekly letter from 24 April, wherein he emphasised the country’s commitment to sticking with its climate change goals of lower carbon emissions to within the target range by 2030, Creecy said that coal units could suspend their compliance to minimum standards regarding greenhouse gas emissions.

The current legal framework allows for power stations to apply for a suspension of minimum environmental standards outlined in 2020. They would, as a result, then be subject to 2015 standards unrelated to greenhouse gas emissions.

Creecy said that South Africa remains committed to its National Determined Contribution (NDC) to lower greenhouse gas emissions as provided to the United Nations. South Africa’s NDC aims to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by setting a target range of 350 to 420 megatonnes.

However, the minister said the commitment does not require the country to take operating units offline during an energy crisis.

“We are saying that within the 2030 timeframe, there is room to reconsider the decommissioning of power plants,” said the minister. South Africa can still reach its NDC targets, and the country can delay decommissioning until later.

“It is not necessary to do it right now,” she said.

Despite this ‘wiggle room’, Creecy said that if coal power stations continue to live beyond 2030, they will not be exempt from minimum standards. This is under a separate regulatory jurisdiction relating to air pollution, not greenhouse gas emissions.

She said that sulfate and nitrous oxide are released through coal burning – the main contributors to air pollution.

Slowing the decommissioning of coal power plants to secure a more stable energy supply across the nation was proposed by the newly-appointed electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa who sees it as an efficient method of staving off higher levels of load shedding in the short and medium-term.

This proposal has ultimately been supported by the ruling party ANC and the president himself.

It has, however, faced backlash from certain ministerial heavyweights such as the finance minister Enoch Godongwana who expressed concern that slowing the decommissioning process would possibly unsettle international partners who have pledged large sums of money to assist in the country’s Just Energy Transition.

During COP26, the UK, US, Germany, France, and the EU pledged $8.5 billion to assist South Africa in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The aid is focused on transforming the energy sector and developing green hydrogen and electric vehicle industries.

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Environment minister backs big plan to cut load shedding