Engineering News reports that a new report into SA’s coal sector argues that any subsidies set aside for the country’s “inevitable” transition away from coal in electricity production should be tailored to protect workers, their dependants and communities, rather than Eskom, or the coal sector as a whole.  

Published by the University of Cape Town’s Energy Research Centre (ERC), the study warns that the domestic coal industry is in crisis, owing to environmental pressures, as well as a loss of competitiveness.  The ‘Coal Transition in South Africa’ states:  “Coal is no longer a cheap and bountiful resource that can ensure security of supply for Eskom power plants.  As the trends already show, closures of plants and mines are inevitable – the question is not if closures will happen, but when.”  What matters, ERC principal researcher Jesse Burton argues, is how the Department of Energy and related ministries “deal with the inevitable”.  Coal jobs are lost under all scenarios tested in the ERC study.  Even under the ‘gradual’ scenario, employment in coal mining is expected to decrease by 28,200 workers by 2050, when compared with the 78,000 workers employed in the sector in 2015.  The economic results in the study show that it is possible to both meet climate change targets and grow the economy.  Nevertheless, there are risks for workers at coal-fired stations, mines, and the communities that depend on these assets “if there is no orderly and properly resourced transition”.  The fact that SA’s coal-fired stations and mines are concentrated in the Mpumalanga province poses a particular threat to socioeconomic stability in the region.

Read this report in full at Mining Weekly

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page