- South Africa plans to wean itself off its coal-dependency industries.
- US$ 8.2 billion to be disbursed in the span of five years.
Few weeks to the next scheduled COP 27 in Egypt, South Africa has officially announced plans to wean itself off its coal-dependency industries in under five years. The energy transition deal was announced at the end of September.
The deal has been entered into with the US and a score of European nations including the UK, Germany, France and the European Union. This climate-finance agreement is meant to see South Africa invest in renewable energy and end its traditional reliance on coal. US$ 8.2 billion to be disbursed in the span of five years.
South Africa admits that 77% of its greenhouse (GH) gas emissions are from energy production most of which (70%) is for the production of electricity through the burning of coal. This huge reliance on coal has seen South Africa rank 13th-largest emitter of GH gasses in the World.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa in July this year mentioned that “The crisis that we are facing requires that we should take bold, courageous and decisive action to close the electricity gap”.
South Africans are only happy to oblige given the fact that not only has burning coal been damaging the atmosphere but it has not been producing sufficient energy to meet the country’s power demand. As a result, South Africans have been contending with scheduled power outages.