Barbara Creecy on SA’s air pollution and climate change issues
Q&A: Minister comments on Eskom’s emission limits and contraventions, moves to reduce air pollution, renewable energy projects, and more.
After recent interviews with the minister of mineral resources and energy, the minister of public enterprises and the CEO of Eskom, which all touched on issues of air pollution, climate change and the energy transition that is underway globally, it was considered essential to interview department of environment, forestry and fisheries (DEFF) Minister Barbara Creecy for her input on these issues.
The interview covers:
- Eskom’s inability to comply with the recently increased SO2 emission limits.
- Plans to avoid installing FGD plant at Medupi power station.
- Under-reporting of legal contraventions at Kendal power station.
- Construction of new coal-fired power plants in South Africa.
- Initiatives to improve domestic ambient air quality in poor communities.
- Further priorities to reduce air pollution in South Africa.
- Initiatives to expedite EIAs for renewable energy projects.
- South Africa’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Question 1: On Eskom’s inability to comply with the recently increased SO2 emission limits…
With your recent concession to increase the SO2 minimum emission standards (MES) from 500 to 1000 mg/Nm3, thus making the SO2 emissions requirement twice as lenient, Eskom advises me that only Kusile will comply with the relaxed SO2 limit, and it appears that there are no plans by Eskom to ever comply with the MES at its other coal-fired power stations. If this is the case, what will be the next steps by DEFF in this regard?
The first issue that one would want to say is that the new SO2 emission limits of 1000 mg/Nm3 only apply to those plants that were built before 2010 and that are not scheduled for decommissioning by 2030. Obviously, this is to allow for the fact that at the time the plants were built, the relevant environmental regulatory environment was not in place.
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