Prioritise access to electricity, jobs in energy transition: climate commission

A report compiled by the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) on the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (Jetip) has revealed that communities and organised labour want the state to prioritise electricity access, affordability and employment in its plans to move towards diverse sources of energy. 

On Monday, the PCC released the Jetip recommendations report which it has submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

The PCC was asked to conduct public and sectoral consultations on the transition plan and make a collective recommendation to the president and government in the first quarter of 2023.   

The PCC conducted several rounds of stakeholder consultations on the Jetip, including with youth, business leaders, civil society, local government, organised labour and the faith community. 

PCC commissioner Shamini Harrington said stakeholders urged the government to support those who are at risk in SA’s energy transition. 

“Electricity access and affordability and employment are non-negotiable outcomes of the plan and these should not be compromised,” said Harrington.

“Organised labour was particularly critical of the Jetip for a number of reasons. Concerns were raised about job losses and privatisation of the electricity system and the reduced role of Eskom in the future electricity supply system.”

The plan is an invitation document to international and local investors and donors to partner with SA on the just energy transition journey.  

It flows from a political declaration signed between the SA government and the governments of France, Germany, the UK, US, and the EU at COP26, which gave rise to the establishment of the transition plan. 

In its engagement with stakeholders, the PCC found that municipalities are emerging as stronger players in energy investment and there was advocacy for them to move beyond just playing a distribution role. 

There was a strong call for the expansion of the grid.

“Every stakeholder — government, business and labour — all backed a strong focus on upgrading and expanding the grid. We note Eskom’s transmission development plan which talks about 8,500km of transmission lines needed by 2031,” said Crispian Olver, executive director of the PCC. 

“The plan needs to clearly indicate how this grid expansion is going to be financed. That is the missing key. National Treasury, public enterprises and Eskom need to have a detailed engagement of how that will happen.”

He added that the Jetip needs to be integrated into the government’s overall fiscal policy to address issues of funding. 

Furthermore, the commission said the government should consider decommissioning old power stations at a later stage. 

“It is difficult to advocate decommissioning [of power stations] in the middle of a power crisis. What we are saying is that once we’ve stabilised the power crisis, the decommissioning programme should be relooked at,” said Olver.

“Once we’ve ramped up renewables to a significant level on the grid, we’ve got good stability, we can look at opportunities to pull those coal-powered stations at a slightly faster pace than the end of economic life.”

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