The burning of coal for the generation of electricity in South Africa causes the premature death of thousands of people every year. It also increases the number of people suffering from serious respiratory diseases. This, despite the country having implemented a minimum air quality standard (MES) in 2010.
The report,
Health impacts of Eskomʼs non-compliance with minimum emissions standards, reveals that the massive amounts of toxic gases and deadly particulates emitted by Eskom’s power stations pose a massive health risk to all South Africans, especially children.
By allowing Eskom to continue operating its coal fired power stations without the prerequisite pollution mitigating equipment for so long, the government has permitted a situation where the country’s state-owned power utility is now the world’s worst emitter of SO2.
Under Eskomʼs planned retirement schedule and emission control retrofits, emissions from the utilityʼs power plants would be responsible for a projected
79 500 air pollution-related deaths from 2025 until end-of-life.
Full compliance with the MES at all plants that are scheduled to operate beyond 2030 would avoid a projected 2300 deaths per year from air pollution and economic costs of R42 billion per year, starting from 2025.
Eskomʼs retrofit plan only realizes one quarter of the health benefits associated with compliance with the MES, due to the almost complete failure to address SO2 emissions. On a cumulative basis until the end-of-life of the power plants, compliance would avoid a projected 34 400 deaths from air pollution and economic costs of R620 billion.
Other avoided health impacts would include 140 000 asthma-related visits to hospital emergency rooms, 5900 new cases of asthma in children, 57 000 preterm births, 35 million days of work absence, and 50 000 years lived with disability.
If the compliance deadline was delayed to 2030 instead of 2025, compliance with the emission limits would still avoid a projected 26 400 deaths from air pollution and economic costs of R470 billion. Requiring the application of best available control technology at all plants, instead of the current MES, by 2030, would avoid 57 000 deaths from air pollution and economic costs of R1000 billion compared to the Eskom plan.
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