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Climate change: SA on track
15/04/2008 14:07 - (SA)
Luyanda Makapela
Cape Town - South Africa is doing its best to meet the challenge of addressing climate change issues while improving energy supplies, says Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.
Speaking at the first Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum meeting in Africa, held in Cape Town on Monday, the minister said while South Africa was dependent on coal to produce energy, government was prepared to employ new technologies to mitigate its environmental effects.
"A major by-product of coal usage is carbon dioxide emissions. South Africa currently emits approximately 400 million tons per year of carbon dioxide.
"The total South African emissions is about one percent of the world's emissions," said the minister, adding that despite this being a small fraction of the total world emissions, the country was committed to addressing the challenge.
In order to increase energy supplies South Africa was not only looking towards coal but also building new electricity generation stations to include gas turbines and a small amount of hydro and nuclear.
With these developments, South Africa is also fast-tracking programmes that conserve electricity while encouraging people to use energy more efficiently.
Sonjica said these developments clearly shows that despite renewable energy programmes and energy efficiency measures, South Africa's energy economy will be coal based for some decades to come.
"It is therefore essential that the use of such a finite and carbon emitting energy resource be planned and managed in a holistic and environmentally acceptable manner."
Key challenge
Sonjica said the key challenge for governments was to ensure the availability of energy to satisfy growing demand while looking at delivering energy at required times.
Other challenges included the affordability of prices to especially poor communities and the sustainability of sources of energy used to ensure that carbon dioxide emissions were reduced.
The minister further said these measures can only assist the Cabinet approved energy efficiency strategy that set a target for improved efficiency of 12% by 2015.
Although South Africa has been a member of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum for five years, the minister said this was the first opportunity the country has had to host a meeting of this organisation.
In March this year, Eskom awarded Alstom and Hitachi Power Africa contracts worth more than R31bn to equip a new 4 740-megawatt coal-fired power station.
The power station, dubbed Project Bravo, is to be built in Witbank in Mpumalanga.
French company Alstom has secured an estimated R13bn contract to supply turbines and related infrastructure, while Hitachi Power Africa, a venture between Germany-based Hitachi Power Europe and South African empowerment partners, will provide boilers for the new power station.
Both companies were awarded similar contracts in November 2007 for "Project Medupi", another coal-fired power station being constructed in Lephalale in the Limpopo province. - BuaNews
- News24
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