Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa to request that the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) be allowed to oversee public consultations on appeals that have arisen in relation to air-quality compliance by Eskom power stations.

Several appeals have been lodged against decisions taken by the Department’s National Air Quality Officer in relation to  the requests for the suspension and/or postponement of compliance with the Minimum Emission Standards (MES) and the issuance of provisional atmospheric emission licences.

Appellants include nongovernmental organisations, some industries and Eskom, with the State-owned utility appealing the department’s recent refusal to grant it permission to postpone MES compliance at several stations.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) declined Eskom's request for MES postponements at Matla, Duvha, Matimba, Medupi and Lethabo, while partially granting postponements for Majuba, Tutuka, Kendal and Kriel.

Eskom received positive postponement decisions for Grootvlei, Arnot, Hendrina, Camden, Komati, Acacia and Port Rex.

The utility said the decisions, unless reviewed, would result in the shutting of 16 000 MW of coal capacity. It has also estimated the cost of full MES compliance at over R300-billion and that the implementation of compliance projects could add at least 10% to the existing electricity tariff.

Creecy has proposed that the appeal process be held in abeyance pending the outcome of the consultative process.

“Due to the complex and conflicting nature of the issues raised in the appeals received, the Minister is of the view that a consultative process will assist in ensuring that all issues arising from the appeals can be addressed in a meaningful and resolute manner,” DFFE spokesperson Albi Modise said.

He told Engineering News that no date had yet been set for the start of the consultations, as the Minister had only recently made the request to the President and was awaiting his response.

DFFE noted, however, that Section 3A of the National Environmental Management Act empowered the Minister to establish any forum or advisory committee to deal with issues relating to the environment.

The department said the consultative process would deal with matters which had a bearing on the environment, in particular air quality, the health of the country’s citizens, as well as issues relating to the security of energy supply and sustainable development.

The request for the PCC to oversee, facilitate and conduct the proposed consultative process had been made so as to allow the appellants and interested and affected parties to make representations.

“It should be noted that the consultative process would not in any way condone noncompliance with the MES and will not impact on any present or future criminal action against noncompliance,” the DFFE added.

PCC executive director Crispian Olver said he was aware of Creecy’s proposal, which had been canvassed with the commission.

He acknowledged that it was outside of the commission’s current mandate, but said that there were also obvious overlaps.

The PCC’s precise role still had to be clarified, but Olver was of the view that there was an opportunity to use the commission’s convening power and mediation capacity to facilitate “the finding of common ground” between stakeholders on the issue.

However, it would be crucial that the process did not distract from the PCC’s core mission of helping to define the country’s just transition framework as the energy system migrated from coal to renewables.