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Cleaner coal tech to help South Africa reduce emissions, says Minerals Council

Coal's importance to the country needs to be balanced against the environmental repercussions of the industry

Coal's importance to the country needs to be balanced against the environmental repercussions of the industry

21st October 2020

By: Tasneem Bulbulia

Senior Contributing Editor Online

     

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) − Coal is integral to South Africa, economically and socially, and will continue to play a pivotal role for many years to come; therefore, technology and innovation in the industry should be pursued to mitigate carbon emissions as part of the country’s just energy transition journey.

This was indicated by speakers during Minerals Council South Africa’s ‘Advancing the just transition: coal technology and innovation’ webinar, held on October 21 − the day on which the council was also observing Global Ethics Day.

Anglo American Coal South Africa CEO and World Coal Association chairperson July Ndlovu emphasised that coal was beneficial to the country, with its multitude of uses, including its importance in the energy mix, the number of jobs it supports directly and indirectly and its role in supporting the economy.

He noted that 70% of energy use in the country – for both electricity and liquid fuels –  was derived from coal. The coal mining industry also employs over 95 000 people, which makes up about 20% of the mining industry and, including related upstream and downstream industries, the coal value chain in the country employees an estimated 230 000 people.

However, he emphasised that this needed to be balanced against the environmental repercussions of the industry, which has a high level of carbon emissions.

Moreover, with the country being a signatory of the Paris Agreement and needing to meet its targets, he said this has left a policy gap between the country’s aspirations to reach a low-carbon future, and the reality that coal is very much a part of its social and economic fabric.

Therefore, one of the solutions, he suggested, was the use of and further innovation of clean coal technology, to allow the coal industry to operate more sustainably and in an environment-friendly manner, while also creating new industries and opportunities which would have economic and employment benefits.

Ndlovu said government should play a role in creating an enabling environment for innovation, such as incentivising research and development spend in new clean coal technology.

Moreover, he called for regulations and polices that would allow for the continued use of coal.

Ndlovu said there was a need to bring down the cost of clean coal technologies, to enable them to compete with other energy options such as nuclear, for example. “Fundamentally, when it comes to this, the technology works, but the economics do not,” he said.

He also mentioned that there had been a sharp decline in clean technology development spend recently, at a time when these breakthroughs were sorely needed.

Innovation consulting firm RIIS CEO Davis Cook noted that it would be very difficult for the country to meets its emission targets and, even in the best case scenario, there would be a gap of about 80 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent yearly.

He mentioned that there were several things government was pursing to enable carbon emission reduction, such a building new hydropower, wind and solar photovoltaic capacity by 2030; energy efficiency programmes; cleaner mobility; and tax incentives.

However, he said government had not demonstrated a reliable record of following through on initiatives.  

Moreover, he said that while the pandemic had led to a net reduction in emissions, it also resulted in a far higher risk environment for the country, owing to the state of government finances.

Also, social pressures may shift government more towards protecting livelihoods and away from pursuing sustainability, he noted.

Therefore, it was unlikely that these initiatives would all materialise, leaving the country even shorter of its targets.

In this regard, he said there were a large number of opportunities that the sector could explore to close this emissions target shortfall. This spanned across extraction, waste management and use, coal processing, generation, emission contributors and rehabilitation.

Therefore, he emphasised that the coal industry could be an active participant in the process of reaching targets, in a commercially sensible manner.

University of the Witwatersrand’s Dr Nandi Malumbazo, meanwhile, said the just energy transition entailed a diverse concept which could be interpreted differently by different people.

She noted that the coal industry still had almost two decades to figure out a strategy towards the coal economy.

Malumbazo also said the raw materials for the green economy can be extracted from coal, thereby reducing the reliance on imports for this.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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