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Cape Town -
If government is serious about its commitment to reduce South Africa's greenhouse gas emissions by 34% from the anticipated 2020 levels, Eskom's Kusile plant is out of the question.
Peet du Plooy, trade adviser to environmental group WWF SA, says that if the government is using "anticipated levels" to mean the 750m tons of greenhouse gas a year that will be released by 2020, in terms of the "business as usual" premise in its long-term scenario analyses, a 34% reduction would imply a target of 500m-odd tons by 2020.
South Africa is already releasing 450m-odd tons of greenhouse gas. Thus there is room for the release of only an additional 50m tons.
The Medupi power station is expected to release 32m tons of greenhouse gas a year, and Kusile 30m tons. Should both be built, South Africa would exceed the 2020 target. Neither would there be, says Du Plooy, any capacity for Sasol's envisaged new coal-to-fuel plant in Limpopo.
Business South Africa (Busa) was equally surprised by the South African government's firm commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas, reports René Vollgraaff.
On Wednesday Busa chief executive, Jerry Vilakazi, said the commitment was an exaggerated target for the South African economy, and that businesses had already made efforts to improve energy efficiency because of the electricity crisis.
Busa considered the legal enforcement of this ambitious target a mistake and further technical work is needed on determining the target. The matter needed urgent investigation.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.