Coal-rich South Africa Announces Plans to Reduce Emissions

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.