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CLIMATE CRISIS CONFERENCE

SA will not sign COP26 parallel pledge to move away from coal, says Environment Minister Creecy

SA will not sign COP26 parallel pledge to move away from coal, says Environment Minister Creecy
Minister Barbara Creecy. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sharon Seretlo)

In an effort to ensure the success of the COP26 climate crisis negotiations and achieve the goal of shifting away from coal, 40 countries and institutions signed a pledge to end coal financing – but South Africa was missing from the commitment.

South Africa will not be signing the pledge to move away from coal that was established on the sidelines of the COP26 climate crisis negotiations under way in Glasgow, Scotland, the Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister, Barbara Creecy said. 

The minister told Daily Maverick in Glasgow that the country had not taken part in the pledge signed by 40 nations and institutions to end coal financing by the 2030s for major economies, and the 2040s for poorer nations. 

“South Africa has not signed the move away from coal pledge. Our position in negotiations is that any decisions need to be made in the process of formal negotiations through the convention. 

“And I think that we would be worried about situations where there’s an increase in tendency to set up platforms and pledges that are outside of the negotiation process. We think that it disadvantages developing countries,” Creecy said.

COP26 has been peppered with ambitious announcements that have been concluded outside of the formal negotiations where countries discuss the necessary and binding measures to reduce global emissions to tackle the climate crisis. The announcements, which are only pledges, have been labelled as “greenwashing” by some. 

The minister said if there were a rush to disinvest from coal, this was likely to result in stranded assets – infrastructure no longer able to earn an economic return. 

“What will happen is that the country will end up with stranded assets. And we know that in any transition there are winners and losers. The losers are seldom owners, it’s normally the workers and the communities,” said Creecy. 

She added that there was an emphasis on a just transition and accessing the necessary financing to ensure that marginalised communities aren’t further disadvantaged in the move away from coal, as guided in SA by the Eskom Just Energy Transition Plan.

Creecy said the argument of gas as an “important transitional fuel” in the shift away from coal was accepted by the department as gas has half the carbon footprint of coal. She added that the concern is how investors will back gas with the aspiration for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

COP26 President Alok Sharma said in a press conference last week that the goal of his presidency was to shift countries away from coal but not other fossil fuels such as oil and gas. 

Transitioning away from coal has been seen as a key move to achieving the 2050 net-zero goal. Gas has been mooted as a leading alternative for developing and developed countries alike.  

South Africa’s National Development Plan targets reaching net-zero by 2050; however, no concrete plan has been put in place to achieve this goal. South Africa’s recently updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) set a lowered carbon dioxide emissions target, which is in line with achieving the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C. 

Alongside the announcements that shadowed the negotiations in the first week of COP26 was the launch of a partnership between the European Union, US, UK, Germany and France. They pledged R131-billion to South Africa to assist the 80% coal-dependent country with transitioning away from coal and to “cleaner” energy sources.

Creecy said the partnership, which includes a mix of concessional loans and grants, can assist South Africa in de-risking private financing and thus unlocking access to loans with lower than commercial rates. 

“The issue when you look at private financing is always the question of, ‘What is the revenue stream to repay?’ One of the programmes we have put in the basket is electric vehicles. So I think that in that situation you could be using grants and concessional financing to be doing your feasibility and preparatory work – a revenue stream through the sale of vehicles is clear,” said Creecy.

To achieve the Paris Agreement goal, South Africa is, in these negotiations, seeking to secure a balanced outcome that will achieve three key aspects of the Paris Agreement: progress on mitigation, adaptation and financing, the minister said. 

“We are also interested in the question of adaptation, and not because we have given up the fight against greenhouse gases,” Creecy said. 

“But because we understand that it’s important that developing countries are able to make their countries more climate resistant. And climate resilience related to agriculture, which obviously in the face of floods, droughts, fires… countries need to develop new ways of developing crops.” 

She said that climate justice was a crucial part of the agreement, as developed countries had to acknowledge their historical responsibility for the climate crisis. Developed countries should therefore bear the financial responsibility of assisting developing countries with climate financing. 

Developed countries have repeatedly failed to meet their climate finance obligations of $100-billion per year between 2009 and 2020. The amount was near $80-billion in 2019, with Africa receiving about $5.5-billion per year towards adaptation.

The scale of Africa’s climate crisis issues does not match the funding available to meet its climate goals, especially as the continent is warming at twice the global average temperature rate. 

At the opening of COP26, the continent asked to be recognised as a special needs and circumstances region in order to receive funding specially tailored to its needs. The request was rejected. 

The vulnerability of the continent has seen African countries experience droughts, locust swarms, fires and floods. The Covid-19 pandemic further exacerbated the crisis and countries were stripped of their meagre resources to fight the crisis. 

“I don’t really see African countries changing their minds on [the three aspects of the Paris Agreement] because the circumstances on the ground are not going to change,” Creecy said. DM/OBP

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Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • Karsten Döpke says:

    So as I understand the argument “ we were irresponsible and wrecked the place through incompetence and corruption and now we would like special privileges “
    Sound about right?

  • L Dennis says:

    Emergency procurement what a joke they so want to bring in karpowership delay indecision just playing for time. Why is energy usage not less its summer isn’t it???

  • Coen Gous says:

    ….and she calls herself the Minister of Environment. By the time our young kids become adults, there won’t be an environment, certainly not a friendly one

  • Wendy Dewberry says:

    The economic model of developing economy countries is most often a broad brush stroke for neoliberal capitalism which has very little considerationd for the poor or the environment beside the use of them.

    So my questions to these Creecy ideas are :

    How does a country that depends on agriculture and animal husbandry see natural gas, which I assume will be fracked, as a transition from coal and a step- up towards pv, wind and hydro electricity ? The science and logic are missing.

    Second, as the poor traditionally suffer the onglaught of bad economics, bad politics, bad environmental policy, and global covid policy has decimated the poor and deconstructed the middle class, now all of a sudden Creecy explains how SA s developing economy needs to take heed of its communities. At this late stage ? By fracking the farmlands that will threaten the lifeblood ? By extending coal to prevent infrastructure waste ?

    It all does not add up. Its like developers who promise jobs and community support in their proposals. Of course, as always, after the paperwork has been signed the poor go to hell and nary a feint whiff of job or benefit do they see. Used again.

  • Dr Know says:

    Medupi and Kusile were born as ‘stranded assets’ and continue to beach themselves on a regular basis.

  • Thinker and Doer says:

    The Government is really not taking the climate crisis, or the energy crisis, seriously, and the country is on the precipice as a result! Minister Mantashe is actively hostile to renewable energy, he has unconscionably delayed the opening up of the grid to the independent power producers for years, which has exacerbated the climate crisis. He is bent on pushing his own agenda on continued reliance on coal, and also on natural gas and nuclear. His agenda is now impeding meaningful commitments to effectively address the climate crisis. The Environment Department just goes along with his agenda.

    It is true that there certainly needs to be a serious commitment by the developed nations to assist a just transition to occur in emerging and lower income economies, and that should certainly be emphasised. However, the conduct of the government will impede access to finance and investment, as financiers are no longer investing in coal! We should be rushing to access all available financing that will assist both to address the energy crisis and also the climate crisis. South Africa cannot continue to be one of the currently major polluting countries (number 12), due to an insistence of continuing to rely on coal. South Africa is experiencing heating at a higher rate than the average, and is a very water scarce country. SA needs to transition now! The lack of seriousness by the government only is making the situation increasingly dire for the country.

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