Transcript South Africa and climate change

South Africa and climate change
• South Africa is the largest CO2 emitter on the African continent, 12th
largest emitter in the world
• Moral responsibility to act decisively on climate change
• National Climate Change Response Policy is fundamental to driving this
action forward
• It must be: strong, ambitious, detailed and must drive the significant
uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency
• It must be the cornerstone of a coordinated, coherent, efficient and
effective response to climate change
• And other plans (like the IRP) must be adjusted to fit in with the National
Climate Change Response Policy
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Introductory sections of the Green Paper
• Lack of detail on how to deal with the key issues
• No concrete targets and timelines
• Vagueness means that alignment with other policies, legislation and
regulation = difficult
• Long term goal of limiting global temp rise to at least 2ºC – but the
African position is 1.5ºC?
• Fair contribution to the global effort vs leadership role
• Precautionary principle definition
• No reference to the “massive/ambitious uptake of renewable energy
(RE)”
• Need numbers/targets for deviation from business as usual
• Carbon intensive industries must be supported to adapt, not given
special treatment
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Policy approaches and actions
Agriculture
• Significant contributor to GHG emissions
• Much more emphasis on ecological farming is needed
Key Mitigation sector – Energy
• The Green Paper discusses nuclear as a definite choice
• Nuclear energy is a dangerous waste of time and undermines
climate protection and diverts money away from RE
• Reducing coal + large scale renewable energy + energy efficiency
are the key elements in creating emissions reductions
• RE could be a major creator of jobs and economic development (78
000 direct new jobs by 2030)
• CSP as baseload power vs coal
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Policy approaches and actions
Key Mitigation sector – Energy
• Effective and binding targets must be set for demand side-management,
energy efficiency and RE implementation
• Policy makes CCS a key component of emissions reductions – should
be completely removed, is experimental, unproven and very expensive
• “Review and scale up” RE must have timelines and numbers
• New and clean coal technologies?
Key Mitigation sector – Industry
• Reassess coal-to-liquids industry
• Carbon tax important component of emissions reductions
• Continuation of business as usual (mining) unacceptable
Monitoring, Evaluation and Review
• Must be strengthened – include independent sectoral
benchmarking/targets
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Key Recommendations
• Agricultural research, development, trade and financial resources
directed towards ecological farming practices
• Alignment between the National Climate Change Response Policy, the
IRP and the IEP is non-negotiable
• Green Paper is too vague in terms of timelines and targets – these
figures must be included
• A low carbon development plan with clear timelines and targets should
be developed by the department
• CCS should be excluded from the document
• The nuclear option should be excluded from the document
• Renewable energy as a key future cornerstone of industry = job
creation, economic development
Leadership is required to tackle climate change to protect the planet, this
country, and our future. This policy must be much more
detailed/ambitious.
www.greenpeaceafrica.org