Cape Town - South Africa can meet its socio-economic objectives with the help of renewable energy, say 30 civic organisations from around the country that met in Cape Town last week.
The Energy Caucus was formed in 2002 by civic organisations including the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA, Earthlife Africa, the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee and Greenpeace to address the country’s energy security.
The group analysed seven peer-reviewed national and international energy reports before last week’s meeting and presented their key findings.
The reports included WWF’s “Powering the Future” report and the Renewable Energy 2013 Global Status Report.
The government is building two coal-fired power stations, Kusile and Medupi, in Mpumalanga and Limpopo respectively, and about 93 percent of Eskom’s electricity is generated from coal.
Brenda Martin, lead organiser of the Energy Caucus, said: “Restrictive, outdated and centralised power solutions (such as coal, shale gas and nuclear) should be rejected in favour of job-creating, renewable technology options.”
She said unlike nuclear and coal power stations, renewable energy resources such as wind farms and solar plants were fast to build and could be installed close to the area where they were needed.
Combined with energy efficiency, they could also create jobs in the long term.
Shaka Dzebu, from the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said what the caucus had discussed was crucial to people’s well-being because “if we make the wrong energy choices we will continue to destroy life on this planet and ultimately impoverish ourselves”.
Peter Bekker, from Koeberg Alert, said: “The government is being slow to follow international trends and also slow to take on board the recommendations of the National Planning Commission. It is therefore up to civic society to help government to move towards a sustainable clean-energy future”.
The caucus resolved that provision of free basic electricity and alternative energy were inadequate because implementation was at best uneven – and lacking in many communities.
Other resolutions included a call for no fracking, no new coal-fired power plants, no nuclear power, no exemptions for Eskom from air quality standards and a review of water demand/supply prospects for the future. - Cape Argus