Replacing South Africa’s aging and inadequate electricity generation capacity with renewable energy plants is an opportunity to spur economic growth and cut emissions, according to Valli Moosa, the deputy chair of the Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission. While many countries face the problem of having to idle fossil fuel-fired power stations to meet climate commitments, many of South Africa’s decades-old, coal-fired plants are due to close anyway, said Moosa. "There is no shortage of appetite on the part of capital to invest in renewable energy in South Africa." Shifting to renewables provides Africa’s most industrialized country with a chance to change its economic fortunes, said Moosa, who served as South Africa’s environment minister between 1999 and 2004. The first big issue the climate commission, which has had two meetings so far, will address is South Africa’s energy challenge, said Moosa.

Source: News 24 June 01, 2021 05:25 UTC