News Flash
- The European Union will launch a project with South Africa to speed up the country’s transition from coal to renewables, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday at a press briefing after delivering her statement ahead of the G20 Summit and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).
- The initiative is to be launched at the COP26 climate summit which kicks off today in Glasgow, Scotland.
“The idea is that the countries support South Africa to phase out of coal faster and to go earlier and faster into developing renewables. We’re still working on that,” von der Leyen told reporters. She added that the United States, the UK, Germany and France were also involved. The four countries sent a joint envoy of delegates to visit the South African government and Eskom officials last month. Read more
Locally the call to accelerate the coal phase-out is amplified
The Life After Coal campaign (comprising the environmental justice groups groundWork and Earthlife Africa, and public interest environmental law group the Centre for Environmental Rights) has called on South Africa to meet the lower bound of its new climate target range by accelerating the coal phase-out and renewable energy build, and to lead on demanding increased financial support from wealthy nations for adaptation and loss and damage at this month’s climate meeting in Glasgow. Read more
South Africa’s energy utility Eskom, has 13 active coal-fired power stations with an installed capacity of 37 745 MW. The utility is currently the worlds worst air polluting power company. Read more
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
