De-mothballed power stations face pollution scrutiny
The utility seeks to satisfy SA’s growing electricity demands by taking out of mothballs a number of decommissioned coal-fired power stations.
Eskom also planned new coal fired power plants, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Friday. He was answering a question at a climate-change round table attended by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and said SA faced a challenge to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Coal-fired plants yearly pump out millions of tons of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.
Van Schalkwyk said while decommissioned coal-fired power stations would be taken out of mothballs, he had warned Eskom it should not expect “the same leniency” regarding environmental standards that had applied in the past.
“They are quite aware of that and we will look very properly at what the environmental standards of the new power stations are,” said Van Schalkwyk.
SA could not continue to “simply rely” on fossil fuels for energy generation. He said a step in the right direction was that the government had announced plans for a second conventional nuclear power station to be built at one of five possible locations on SA’s coast.
The government was also looking at renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, he said.
After a long period of despondency there was a new spirit of optimism and co-operation after the recent Bali meeting on climate change and the launching of a new round of negotiations to strengthen the climate regime after 2012, Van Schalkwyk said.
In this new round, “adaptation (to unavoidable effects of climate change) finally had equal place alongside mitigation (reducing or avoiding emissions)”.
He said everyone was talking about mitigation now, “including the US”. Also, developing states had agreed to start talks on mitigation action that was measurable, reportable and verifiable.
Van Schalkwyk said the US commitment to join negotiations was an important step forward, but remained a first “infant step”. What was expected from the US was a “quantum leap”. “We need to build a bridge from the fragmented, inadequate status quo to a climate regime where the US also accepts internationally agreed and binding targets.”
It was vital that “comparable effort” led to US commitment to absolute reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
Developing countries demonstrated real leadership in Bali. It was now up to the US to show leadership and “take their fair share of responsibility,” he said.
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