- The North Gauteng High Court, on 4 December, handed down judgment in the landmark constitutional litigation against the South African government’s decision to procure 1 500 MW of new coal-fired power.
- The court declared the decision unlawful and invalid, on the basis that there was insufficient consultation with, and consideration of, the harms and limitation of rights of present and future generations that could follow from building new coal electricity generation.
Dubbed the Cancel Coal case, it was launched by three civil society organisations – the youth-led African Climate Alliance (ACA), the community-based Highveld group, the Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action (VEM) and groundWork (gW), represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), against the former Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy (the Minister) and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).
In addition to declaring the Minister’s 2020 determination to procure the new-build coal power, and NERSA’s concurrence thereto, unlawful and invalid, the court also held that the portion of the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) that provides for this new coal generation is unlawful and invalid. This is because this section of the IRP does not pass the test of legality, there being no evidence that the Minister adequately considered the limitation of rights of children due to health and environmental harms of coal combustion for electricity.
The court further found no evidence that the rights of children [and future generations]had been adequately considered when the Minister and NERSA made the decision to procure coal-fired power. This was in contravention of their constitutional obligation to consider the best interests of the child – as defined in section 28 of the Constitution.
The review application, launched in November 2021, highlights the findings of international research, such as the recently published Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which confirms the need to urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions in light of the precarious state of our climate, as well as a series of in-depth expert analyses of the consequences of new coal-fired power specific to South Africa local expert reports document the unnecessary cost and job losses, climate harms and impacts on social, physical and mental health and well-being for people living in South Africa, now and in the future.
The burning of coal is one of the biggest contributors to global climate change, in addition to unacceptable health impacts caused by air and water pollution. Given the nature of the climate crisis with its intensifying impacts, it is children and future generations who will bear the brunt of the climate harms caused by the ongoing burning of fossil fuels.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
Source: Centre for Environmental Rights
