Following Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe voicing his concern, on February 1, that South Africa’s coal mining sector cannot diminish and fade away, trade union the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has added its support for efforts to sustain the industry.

Currently, global climate change mitigation advocacy is centred on phasing out coal mining and coal-fired generation plants as burning the fossil fuel adds significantly to greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.

In this regard, global policies have been established with the intention to reduce, or otherwise limit, GHG emissions to limit global warming to below 2 ^oC, preferably to below 1.5 ^oC, above pre-industrial era levels.

In a statement, the NUM blames climate change on “developed countries” that have used fossil fuels to build their economies. It argues that South Africa should not have to “sacrifice our economic development so they can continue to pollute”, despite many developed nations having now taken steps to reduce their GHG emissions.

Mantashe acknowledged that although South Africa’s coal mining and coal-burning industries were presented with “binding constraints”, the coal mining industry still needed to take steps to save itself because many people depended on coal mining jobs, while also alluding that many jobs would be lost if Eskom were to close some of its old and inefficient coal-fired power stations.

Backing Mantashe, the NUM says it hopes there will “still be a lot of coal generation in South Africa by 2030, or even after that”, and adds that it is “resolute” in the hopes that the South African government will reject the R131-billion climate financing pledge from the European Union, Germany, France, the UK and the US.

This financing deal, which government signed in November 2021 at COP26 is intended to mobilise R131-billion worth of capital – over the next three to five years through a range of instruments – to support the implementation of South Africa’s revised Nationally Determined Contribution through a just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy.

Nonetheless, the NUM says that, because South Africa has an abundance of coal reserves, it will be “very irresponsible and reckless” for the country to stop using coal.

NUM president Joseph Montisetse says the union fully supports Mantashe despite him being labelled a “coal fundamentalist” and a “fossil fuel dinosaur” by detractors.

“We have examples of places like Pennsylvania, in the US, [which] after [shutting] coal mines [resulted in] people g[etting] trapped in poverty. It is a reality that many communities stand to suffer the consequences,” he adds.

SOLUTION?
The NUM posits that, as an alternative to shutting coal mines and coal-fired power stations, South Africa should, instead, build “environment-friendly power stations” and investigate all technologies that can reduce GHG emissions, such as carbon capture and storage.

“There are different ways in which coal can be made clean by the process of carbon capture and filtration. Let that money be invested in technologies to clean coal,” the NUM says in a statement.

The NUM adds that it is not opposed to renewable energy and believes Eskom should be involved in such endeavours.

“[However,] we are not going to allow a situation where several communities are left in poverty. We have started a process of mobilising communities to resist and oppose the move of getting rid of coal mines,” concludes Montisetse.