On Friday, a friend was sitting at a Johannesburg restaurant amidst a storm hoping for rain. After a few minutes, it did rain – but only for less than five minutes. Someone, sitting at the same table, cynically observed, “now this is what climate change looks like".
While SA has been mainly fortunate not to have had many severe climate incidents, parts of the country are suffering the effects of climate change such as prolonged droughts. We are not alone in this. Countries such as Namibia, Madagascar and Kenya have experienced the effects of this phenomenon.
This is the second – and final – week of talks in Glasgow, Scotland, to save the planet from the negative effects of carbon emissions. In 2015, world leaders committed to reducing global warming levels to 1.5C or pre-industrial levels when they met in Paris, France.
Unfortunately, progress has been slow. The planet is heating up at a rapid rate. The biggest polluters are the world’s richest nations – which have benefited from fossil fuels – and the worst victims are developing countries. Africa, for example, has contributed less than 1% to global warming even though it has been worst affected by emissions as seen in strange weather patterns.
At least three measures can mitigate this impending catastrophe: reducing carbon emissions, slowing down or, better still, reversing deforestation and moving away from fossil energy like coal-fired power stations.
Our country, for example, still relies on electricity generated from coal-fired power stations. A few are due to be decommissioned in the next few years as part of the transition to solar, wind and other forms of green energy.
That we need to move away from coal is not in dispute. We do need to move away from fossil energy to save our planet for our children and their children.
However, we need to do this at a pace that doesn’t have negative effects on lives and livelihoods. For example, for the foreseeable future, we will still be reliant on coal to generate energy.
Other countries, such as China, have stopped investing in coal-fired power stations abroad, but still do so at home. The logic here is quite straightforward: they need to continue powering their economy.
For our part, we need to be sensitive that we ease Eskom, our struggling power utility, into the future of clean energy. Eskom has to be an integral part of a future energy mix. Its stations need to be repurposed to supply clean energy instead of just being decommissioned.
The pace of licensing independent power producers needs to be accelerated to ease the burden on Eskom.
A week ago, SA was promised R130bn by Western governments to assist Eskom to make this transition. This is welcome, especially if the countries make good on their pledges. In the past, similar pledges haven’t been honoured.
But there are risks too. Governments, especially from poor countries, need to prioritise their citizens’ interests and not be forced into agreeing timeframes that will have disastrous consequences for their people.
While all of us agree the transition has to be fair and just, we need all stakeholders to buy into the process and its vision.
The authors of the transition cannot just be governments – foreign and domestic – and banks. The host communities around the mines and Eskom’s power stations need to form part of these conversations about the future of their towns.
As well as repurposing these stations, the communities and workers have to be positioned through retraining and investments to participate meaningfully in both the transition process and the future of these entities. Every effort ought to be made to ensure that these towns aren’t turned into ghost towns.
Banks, too, need to be sensitive to coal miners and other holders of so-called brown assets. Abruptly withdrawing funding from these investors will destroy many livelihoods that rely on these projects and companies.
Despite the enthusiasm of participants including the return of the US to the Paris Accord, this year’s summit has been overshadowed by the absence of two consequential players: namely, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
This is not the end of the world, so to speak. Africa, which is hosting the next summit, should ensure that that meeting achieves progress in saving our planet from burning.
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