By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Forestry, fisheries & environment minister Dion George. Photo Credit: Trevor Samson.
Forestry, Fisheries and the Enviroment Minister Deon George says his department is preparing for the second nationally determined contribution (NDC) through technical work and then wider consultation.
The NDC is a commitment made by South Africa (SA) under the Paris Agreement.
Delivering his maiden Budget Vote, George stressed that South Africa remained a responsible global citizen and committed to the multilateral rules-based regime under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement.
According to its most recent NDCs, SA has expressed the ambition of reducing emissions to a target range of 350-million tonnes to 420-million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions — a reduction of about 20%-33% from current levels.
His speech followed sign-off by previous Forestry, Fisheries and the Enviroment Minister Barbara Creecy on an appeal by Eskom regarding ongoing non-compliance by Eskom coal power stations with minimum emission standards (MES); a decision that could have an impact on South Africa meeting its prevailing NDC commitment.
Creecy’s decision followed an appeal of the National Air Quality Officer’s October 2023 MES decision, which Eskom said would lead to the shutting of 30 000 MW of capacity, as the cost of retrofitting the plants to meet air-pollution limits would be a prohibitive R300-billion.
“We are preparing our second nationally determined contribution through technical work and then wide consultation, [and] will take into account the outcome of the first global stocktake, and communicate another fair and ambitious contribution in 2025.”
George also reaffirmed his commitment to implementing a just energy transition.
“We plan to accelerate investment in renewable-energy projects.
“We need to strengthen our transmission grid and with our abundance of solar, wind and mineral resources, we are well positioned to generate jobs in renewable energy, green hydrogen, green steel, electric vehicles and other green products.
“A particular focus is Mpumalanga where many livelihoods are at risk, and we remain committed to facilitating new industries, new economic opportunities and sustainable jobs,” George said.
He also committed his department to finalising all enviromental impact assessment (EIA) applications within the regulated timeframe during 2024/25 financial year.
He said decisions on 320 EIA applications were issued in 2023/24, 99% of which were issued within the regulated timeframe.