The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) has called for a renewable energy sector that is socially owned, consisting of “different forms of collective ownership”, the organisation said at its five day renewable energy conference in Johannesburg yesterday.
Delegates and fellow unionists from countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, China and France gave presentations and examples on how renewable energy projects could be funded by public entities instead of private companies who’s sole purpose is to make a profit from the green agenda.
The conference, which began on Saturday sought to establish a global blue print on how to achieve what they call a socially owned renewable energy sector.
In addition the conference hoped to develop a strong energy policy aimed at shaping the country’s industrial development in renewable energy.
The conference was also aimed at preventing the renewable energy sector from being dominated by a capitalist system, said the union.
Karl Cloete, the deputy general secretary of NUMSA, said in a discussion document that socially owned entities should be decentralised in terms of ownership and operation.
“They must relate to each other and be integrated in a way that builds a national sector as a coherent whole,” he said.
Also, socially owned renewable energy institutions should have prioritised access to the grid. In addition, the grid was the back bone of the renewable energy sector and needed to be publicly owned, he said.
In the opening address on Saturday, Cedric Gina, the president of Numsa said: “We are currently facing a situation in which the expansion of the renewable energy sector is rapidly developing along capitalist lines”.
He said workers and communities were at risk of being left behind and “being forced to pay the costs of the sector’s expansion”. Also, the building of the renewable energy sector raised questions about who would benefit from its emergence.
“Do communities stand to benefit or is this another capitalist grab to enrich a few? This is why we have chosen to host this conference about socially-owned renewable energy,” he said.
Sergio Oceransky Losana, the chief executive of the Yansa Group a New York based organisation that deals with transitions to renewable energy said there were frame works put in place in countries such as Mexico to assist various communities in adjusting to renewable energy projects. These would see some communities own these initiatives.
Losana explained that many communities remained marginalised from participation in the renewable energy sector which was still dominated by private companies. “We are here to explore how renewable energy can be socially owned and develop a business model to have wind farms owned by their respective communities,” he said. - Ayanda Mdluli with additional reporting by Sapa