SA on 'green' tightrope
2007-08-07 15:26
Cape Town - Reducing South Africa's greenhouse gas emissions while trying to grow the economy is a balancing act, says the Department of Environmental Affairs.
"The tightrope that we straddle as a country is how do you both ensure... that you start mitigating your climate change effects, but at the same time sustain your growth path," Deputy Director-General Joanne Yawitch said on Tuesday.
She was speaking to Sapa after briefing members of Parliament's environmental affairs and tourism portfolio committee on climate change.
Yawitch said electricity from Eskom's coal-fired power stations - which each year pump out millions of tons of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas - would remain a mainstay of the country's energy supply for years to come.
South Africa was a developing country, with huge unemployment and poverty, and it was important to grow the economy.
"(Our) competitive advantage to a large extent historically has been around cheap energy, and the days of that are probably coming to an end, but never the less, it is very important."
She said government wanted to see non-greenhouse gas generating capacity, such as nuclear, grow over time, but coal-generated energy was going to remain "a large part of the mix for quite a long time to come".
Eleventh highest emitter of greenhouse gases
Earlier, her colleague, Environment and Sustainable Development Co-operation Chief Director Judy Beaumont, told MPs South Africa was the 11th highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the developing world.
The country had a "heavy reliance" on coal to meet its energy needs, with three-quarters of its total energy consumption (in 2004) coming from coal, she said.
Yawitch told the committee a scenario-building team, including government, business and civil society members, was working on a "long-term mitigation scenarios" report to be presented to Cabinet next year.
This would spell out "ambitious but realistic" scenarios of future action to be taken on climate change.
Work was also being done on preparing a greenhouse gas inventory, which would be completed in April or May next year.
Asked by Sapa if there would be ever-greater emissions of greenhouse gases by South Africa over the next decade, Yawitch replied: "Yes, certainly yes, the possibility exists."
The department was looking at ways of mitigating this.
"I really think it's a question of how you close the gap, and what you do to close it."
She said so-called clean-coal technologies - intended to reduce or capture the greenhouse gas emitted by coal-fired power stations - were still "reasonably in their infancy".
- SAPA