South Africa needs to urgently transform its energy system, and renewables need to be elevated as a national priority going forward, a new study says.
The integrated energy report, launched yesterday by the National Business Initiative, Business Unity SA and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) details SA’s energy transition.
This study also assesses what it would take for SA to reach net-zero by 2050 and ensure a Just Transition.
The report outlines the core findings regarding the transformation SA needs to pursue in terms of the country’s energy sector and says the country can solve its energy crisis and realise a Just Transition to a competitive, net-zero economy, if it can unlock value in renewables.
SA is experiencing the most severe power cuts in more than a decade and the situation has led to growing calls from various leaders for the country to urgently diversify sources of electricity to include an increased uptake of renewable energy.
Highlights of the latest BCG study include SA’s urgent need to drive decarbonisation and transformation of the energy sector; the need for renewables to be elevated as a national priority going forward; and the need for a coordinated approach to incubate new green industries, drive economic diversification and create opportunities for skills development.
Principals of the study say their research on SA’s energy sector indicates the long-term cost of inaction is high.
“This energy transition would improve the availability and reliability of SA’s power supply, all while enabling new green industries to build the foundation of a globally competitive economy that is resilient to trade risks from a transition to net-zero.”
Yesterday, head of the presidential climate finance task team Daniel Mminele said SA puts citizens at the heart of a Just Energy transition.
He made these remarks during a joint media briefing, together with climate envoys from the European Union, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The briefing provided an update on the Just Energy Transition Partnership and the finalisation of an investment plan to guide SA’s Just Transition.
“We are committed to making sure communities and employees that stand to be affected most by the transition are part and parcel of the various initiatives and plans that we put in place to protect livelihoods. [We are going to] make sure the retraining and reskilling opportunities allow people to be equipped to find jobs in a new, greener and more sustainable economy,” Mminele said.
Meanwhile, forestry, fisheries and environment minister Barbara Creecy announced initiatives for further streamlining the environmental assessment process for SA’s renewable energy projects.
The initiatives, Creecy said, will improve the efficiency of the environmental assessment processes to facilitate the development of solar photovoltaic and associated infrastructure in areas of low to medium environmental sensitivity.
Creecy said the initiatives to be implemented will exempt developers from obtaining environmental authorisation for certain listed or specified activities for the development of solar facilities.
“These initiatives are in addition to the interventions introduced since 2014 to streamline EAs related to renewable energy projects like gazetting of 11 Renewable Development Zones, five electricity transmission corridors and gas corridors, as well as the implementation of a Generic Environmental Management Programme for grid and substation development and expansion.”
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