LETTER: Climate change demands quicker resource plan response
Integrated Resource Plan to reduce SA's reliance on coal for energy to less than 20% by 2050 is far too slow. The document appears oblivious to the immediate urgency of responding to climate change.
Ndavhe Mareda’s article identifies the problem as the solution to our energy needs. The problem is that the draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to reduce our reliance on coal for energy to less than 20% by 2050 is far too slow. As the Life After Coal coalition has pointed out, the document “appears oblivious to the immediate urgency of responding to climate change”.
The urgency is clear on the planetary and local levels. Mining and burning coal is one of the most destructive activities on the planet. It represents an urgent and immediate threat to all forms of life, specifically to scarce supplies of water, the degradation of arable land and toxic pollution of the air and water . Poor, black South Africans are carrying the heaviest burden. Many communities living close to the operative coal-fired power stations and open pit, working or abandoned mines are dealing with forced removals and dispossession, loss of livelihoods, threats to food security, limitations on access to wa...
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