https://www.miningweekly.com

Govt initiates fresh look at South Africa’s carbon-emission yardsticks

5th August 2019

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

     

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries on Friday placed an advertisement for service providers to take a fresh look at this country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission guidelines and carbon space allocation in what could be a great boost for South Africa's green-promoting platinum group metals (PGMs).

South Africa is among the 15 largest emitters of GHGs, which cause environmental degradation. Seen as an economically viable alternative is the use of South Africa’s superior sunshine and prime wind to generate clean renewable energy and thereby increase energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and create ‘green’ jobs concurrently.

The advertisement, placed jointly with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), called for expression of interest from service providers in the review of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance Guidelines, which were developed to assist in the mitigation part of Climate Change Impact Assessments, as well as to review carbon space allocation processes to new entrants into the market.

Friday’s advertisement put the focus on reviewing the methodology of the benchmarks used, assessing the likely socioeconomic impacts of the proposed benchmarks, and examining the necessary budgeting and staffing in government to implement and administer the proposed benchmarks.

GIZ invited eligible South African companies with local presence and origin to participate in the tender. Expression of interest forms are available for downloading until August 9 at https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/75381.html.

Thematic priorities in German development cooperation with South Africa include energy and climate, with GIZ addressing climate change in South Africa as part of a programme that extends to 2020.

At the end of last year, German development cooperation with South Africa, which began in 1993 on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, involved 134 national and 59 international employees, six integrated specialists and 13 development workers in the country.

Against that background, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, in collaboration with GIZ, is seeking to appoint qualified service providers to take South Africa to the next level.

With the help of South Africa’s locally mined PGMs, the sun and wind can be harnessed to produce clean hydrogen, with the help of electrolysers that also use PGMs as catalysts. Clean electricity can, in turn, be generated from the hydrogen, with the help of PGM-catalysed fuel cells.

Nurturing new forms of economic activity brought about by the green economy is important, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic adviser Trudi Makhaya told last month’s fuel cell conference organised by Nedbank CIB Market Research.

Tech-savvy Ramaphosa himself committed the country, during his State of the Nation address, to exploring the full potential of hydrogen, which is an inherent electricity storage medium in that it can be stored for days, weeks, months or years, without running down like batteries do.

“Fuel cells are running very well and fulfilling all the requirements that the customers want at the moment,” Professor Dr Ferdinand Panik told Mining Weekly Online during his recent visit to South Africa. Panik said that the cost of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) would be reduced by the scale effects and hydrogen, which, once regarded as a challenge, had instead become a driver, in conjunction with sustainable energy systems, in both the stationary and automotive fields.

“I think there’s a very exciting future for particularly the PGMs industry to be right at the forefront and we want to be there with South Africa, and we’re going to be South Africa’s partner for the long term,” Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani told Mining Weekly Online last month

Meanwhile, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), which recorded a spectacular 120% increase in half-year headline earnings per share, is screening the opportunities to use hydrogen fuel cell trucks that are emission-free in its fleet.

“We think that, by this time next year, we’ll have the largest fuel cell truck operating anywhere in the world,” Amplats CEO Chris Griffith told Mining Weekly Online at Amplats’ presentation of sensational half-year results, which ticked every box, including the momentous safety box.

Green mining using FCEVs is a credibility preserver for a company like Amplats, which cleans the air of big cities with the PGMs in exhaust catalysts but still pollutes the air of Limpopo province with the diesel fumes from its mining trucks.

South Africa’s Isondo Precious Metals is rolling out its fuel cell strategy and is planning to establish a fuel-cell component manufacturing plant in South Africa.

MAJOR FUEL CELL FEATURE UPCOMING

Mining Weekly will be publishing a major feature on fuel cells (deadline August 16) and companies wanting to advertise in the feature should contact Creamer Media COO Sales and Marketing Reinette Classen at +27 11 622 3744. Those with news should speak to Martin Creamer at the same number.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION