SA at the bottom of the pile in transition towards clean energy
Highly dependent on fossil fuels and ranked 114 by World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index, the country is only better than Haiti
The World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index has ranked SA 114th out of 115 economies in measuring progress in the transition towards a more sustainable and secure global energy system. The index’s findings are summarised in the Forum’s 2019 Fostering Effective Energy Transition report, which was released on Monday. It found SA’s energy system to be highly dependent on fossil fuels as the country struggles to shift away from coal as the dominant source of power supply and to reform its energy market. SA ranks near the bottom in terms of environmental sustainability and energy access, with just 68% of its population having reliable access to electricity. The forum also found SA’s domestic greenhouse gas policies were deemed highly insufficient with respect to the Paris climate accord, but noted that the economy does benefit from relatively low energy prices. SA’s woeful ranking is surpassed only by Haiti’s, which came last. Even Venezuela, which suffered a widespread and devas...
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