- News agency Bloomberg reports that four of the world’s richest nations will send a delegation to South Africa as soon as next week to seek a deal to begin closing the country’s coal-fired plants, according to people familiar with the matter.
- Eskom is seeking USD 10 Billion to Transition from Coal to Renewables. Read more
Officials from the U.S., U.K., France and Germany are looking for an agreement with Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which generates almost all of South Africa’s power from a fleet of 15 coal plants. Any deal struck could be announced during the United Nations climate talks known as COP26, set to start in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 31, one of the people said.
“The developed economies have a responsibility to fund the just transition to a low carbon economy and climate resilient society,” said Albi Modise, a spokesman for South Africa’s environment department. He confirmed that John Murton, the U.K.’s envoy to COP26, will visit the country “to assess opportunities for enhanced cooperation” but added that the dates are still being finalized.
Alok Sharma, the COP26 president, has said he wants to use the summit to “consign coal to history.” But he’s met resistance from a number of middle-income countries that rely on coal. A Group of 20 meeting in July failed to reach an agreement on phasing out coal.
South Africa’s use of coal has made it the world’s 12th biggest emitter of greenhouses gases, ahead of the U.K. which has an economy eight times its size. Eskom alone accounts for more than 40% of South Africa’s emissions. Read more
Related news: Debt Finance Costs Eskom R32.5 Billion This Past Financial Year
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
Source: Bloomberg
Eskom’s group chief executive, André de Ruyter. Credit: Eskom
Eskom GCE, Mr Stefan De Ruyter will be speaking at Enlit Africa. Do not miss this premier energy event!
1 Comment
Stop lying to yourselves and the people. Renewable technology is incapable to replace coal fired electricity generation. Nuclear energy is the only sustainable alternative to coal for sustainable baseload energy production. Renewable plant such as solar and wind turbine manufacturing needs baseload fosil fuel energy generation to be manufactured.
Further, what approved processes and plans do you have in place to recycle and rehahabilitate solar infrastructure and wind turbines at their operational life’s end?