SLOWING CLIMATE CHANGE: THE WORLD IS IN A CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE.
GOOD reiterates call to Minister Mantashe for Section 34 Determinations to apply to local governments.
Welcomes Minister Creecy’s commitments on carbon emission reductions.
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Statement from Mark Rountree, National Policy Officer for GOOD
11 December 2019
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On the 11th December 2018, GOOD issued a call for South Africa to lower its carbon emissions; one mechanism to accelerate this being Section 34 Determinations from the Minister of Energy that can permit local governments to choose to procure renewable energy directly from Independent Power Producers. Not only is this better for the planet, and our energy security, but solar and wind electricity is also far cheaper than new coal-generated power.
Yesterday’s commitment, from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to promulgate Section 34 Determinations, must apply to local government if we are to stabilise our energy supply and meet our carbon emissions commitments.
GOOD welcomes the statement this week, by the Minister of Environment Barbara Creecy, to the international COP meeting that South Africa will enhance its climate change and emissions reductions plans by next year, in line with the Paris Agreement. She confirmed that “South Africa is committed to fulfilling and enhancing our Nationally Determined Contributions.”
The Section 34 Determinations, committed to by Minister Mantashe, if enacted fast, will help accelerate South Africa’s carbon emissions reductions.
In 2016, GOOD’s leader, Minister Patricia de Lille, then Mayor of Cape Town, requested multiple times for the then-Minister of Energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, to allow local government to procure electricity directly from independent power producers. At the time, De Lille justified said that she would “not sit back passively waiting to be crippled by Eskom’s decision especially amid rapidly escalating electricity prices“. De Lille went to court to fight for the right of towns and cities to be able to buy their electricity independently from Eskom – specifically from renewable companies that now generate solar and wind energy cheaper than Eskom’s coal-dominated supply.
This remains the policy position of GOOD. In our October 2019 submission on the draft IRP, GOOD requested Minister Mantashe to allow Section 34 determinations to permit capacitated municipalities to procure renewable power directly from independent power producers. Agreeing to such a determination would bring more renewable energy in to the mix faster and enhance energy security for South Africa.
Minister Mantashe did not mention Section 34 Determinations for local government in his speech introducing the draft IRP in October 2019. A month later in November 2019, when addressing Parliament, he acknowledgedthat this options exists but did not commit to approving such a mechanism.
GOOD calls on Mantashe to promulgate Section 34 determinations which will result in both
(1) the determinations for local government being signed immediately, as well as
(2) saving taxpayers more money by suspending their court action opposing the process De Lille began fighting for three years ago.
South Africa and the world is in the midst of a climate emergency and speed is of the essence.
Ends