South Africa has decided at the highest political level to create a low carbon economy, Yale e360 correspondent Adam Welz reports from Cape Town.
“We are not going to be pushed back by any special interests or climate change denialists,” said Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk at a Monday press briefing. A Cabinet-level decision had been taken to aggressively expand renewable and nuclear power generation and to ramp up energy efficiency targets. Van Schalkwyk said he foresaw South Africa’s overall carbon emissions unavoidably rising by about 20 percent until about 2025, after which they would begin a steady decline. This announcement is significant because South Africa generates about 90 percent of its electricity from coal, has some of the world’s largest proven coal reserves, and has long promoted itself as a destination for energy-intensive industry. Van Schalkwyk said the nation would soon begin ramping up carbon taxes and possibly introduce a cap-and-trade system.
Coal-rich South Africa Announces Plans to Reduce Emissions
More From E360
-
Cities
‘Sponge City’: How Copenhagen Is Adapting to a Wetter Future
-
INTERVIEW
On Controlling Fire, New Lessons from a Deep Indigenous Past
-
Solutions
Paying the People: Liberia’s Novel Plan to Save Its Forests
-
OPINION
Forest Service Plan Threatens the Heart of an Alaskan Wilderness
-
INTERVIEW
Pakistan’s Solar Revolution Is Bringing Power to the People
-
Food & Agriculture
In Uganda, Deadly Landslides Force an Agricultural Reckoning
-
Energy
Why U.S. Geothermal May Advance, Despite Political Headwinds
-
Food & Agriculture
In War Zones, a Race to Save Key Seeds Needed to Feed the World
-
Climate
Lightning Strikes the Arctic: What Will It Mean for the Far North?
-
RIVERS
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath
-
Solutions
Deconstructing Buildings: The Quest for New Life for Old Wood
-
NATURAL DEFENSES
How Restored Wetlands Can Protect Europe from Russian Invasion