Page 17 - SA Chamber UK - September Newsletter- eBook

CYRIL’S CLIMATE TZAR

After serial delays, South Africa has recommitted to its climate targets
despite formidable political and financial obstacles.

Crispian Olver, head of the Presidential Climate Commission, addressing a meeting of
business and energy specialists convened by the South African Chamber of Commerce at
the City law firm Simmonds and Simmonds, said the biggest challenge of the country’s Just
Energy Transition was managing the social and economic consequences of decarbonisation.

Tens of thousands of employees in the coal and related industries would have to be
redeployed on the renewable energy sector and trained with new skills. Others would have
to be compensated with early retirement packages and other forms of compensation.

Africa Climate Summit

On 4 September President Cyril Ramaphosa sent Environment Minister Barbara Creecy to
the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi to re-assure the continent and global partners of the
Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP ) that its long-awaited implementation plan will be

finalised before the COP-28 climate summit in Dubai on 30 November.

The $8.5bn (R204bn) climate pact – signed by the US, UK, France, Germany and the
European Union at COP-26 in Glasgow – will provide the funds to assist South Africa in its

transition from an economy heavily dependent on coal to a carbon free economy by 2050.

Once the plan is finalised the funds can begin to flow. South Africa is the most carbon

dependent economy in the world and one of its major per capita polluters. Some 80% of
the country’s electricity supply comes from coal-fired power stations. Creecy said that due
to the electricity crisis in South Africa the decommissioning of some coal-fired plants would
be delayed but the country is still fully committed to its targets for net-zero by 2050.

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SA CHAMBER UK NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2023