The ANC’s top leadership has gone bright green. Last week ANC president Jacob Zuma, President Kgalema Motlanthe and a slew of government ministers spoke out on sustainable energy, the dangers of coal addiction and the threat posed by global warming to South Africa.
Their public statements coincided with an Oxfam and Earthlife report which highlighted the gap between the government’s rhetoric and its actions on climate change.
Zuma, not noted for climate change activism, made a high-profile appearance at the Socialist International Commission for a Sustainable World Society in Kleinmond, near Cape Town, last week Monday.
Calling for South Africa to end its dependency on coal he said: ”We want to escalate our national efforts towards the realisation of a greater contribution of renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power as part of an ambitious renewable energy target.”
South Africa, with the United States, China, India, the European Union and Denmark, is expected to be a key negotiator at the summit in Copenhagen in December this year, which aims to extend the Kyoto Protocol. South Africa is under pressure to meet the international obligations the summit will most certainly set.
Last Tuesday, Motlanthe told 600 delegates at a government-sponsored climate change summit in Midrand that the government has a duty ”to define the future response of our nation and … the world community of nations” to the challenge of global warming.
He said climate change has moved to the top of the government’s agenda and that there is high-level political support for the Cabinet-approved plan for South Africa’s greenhouse gases to peak between 2020 and 2025, stabilise for a decade and fall absolutely by 2050.
The Cabinet also supports a 15% renewable target by 2020. Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told the summit South Africa could implement its climate change plan within three years, while Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said energy generation should become more sustainable and Water and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks warned of the potential impact on limited water resources.
Sonjica’s department has been under heavy fire for paying lip-service to initiatives that aim to reduce greenhouse gases, while encouraging emerging coalminers.
Van Schalkwyk hinted that certain carbon-intensive businesses have yet to rehabilitate themselves. Some businesses had not grasped the implications of cutting their greenhouse gases to the required levels.
Companies should prepare to report to government on their emissions, he warned.
The Oxfam/Earthlife report, published two weeks ago, fingers Eskom and Sasol as two of the biggest culprits. Eskom accounts for about half of South Africa’s emissions.
The companies claim to have devised strategies to reduce their carbon footprint, but the report described these as greenwashing. It urged the government to ensure that they keep their word.
The report says that although the government has positioned itself as a climate champion, ”government policies continue to benefit key industries and thus effectively condone high emissions in the name of economic growth”.
It also alluded to conflicts between Van Schalkwyk and Sonjica’s departments.
”Van Schalkwyk has made strong progressive statements regarding emissions cuts and the need to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” it said. ”At the same time, government has given its blessing to the construction of a new Sasol coal-to-liquids plant that would boost the country’s CO2 emissions even further.”