ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION AND APPEAL DECISION: 400MW RICHARDS BAY GAS TO POWER

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), acting on behalf of groundWork, has written to the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) to seek clarity and reasons regarding a Minister's appeal decision dated 10 August 2021. The decision concerns the environmental authorisation for the 400MW Richards Bay Gas to Power project, specifically regarding the increase in fuel-generated gas capacity and the omission of a climate change impact assessment.

• The Minister of the DFFE decided that increasing the fuel-generated gas operation capacity from 300MW to 400MW did not trigger a listed activity. The Minister's reasoning was that there was no additional capacity increase from the original proposal of 300MW fuel-operated gas power combined with 100MW steam generation to the new proposal of 400MW gas power without steam generation.
• The Minister determined that a climate change impact assessment (CCIA) was not necessary for the project. This decision was based on the view that the Thabametsi High Court judgment regarding the need for climate impact assessments does not apply retrospectively, and that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions had been assessed during the December 2020 Air Emission Licence Process.
• The Minister's appeal decision remitted the matter back to the Chief Director: Integrated Environmental Authorisations (CD:IEA) for further action, including engaging the Applicant on whether to replace the environmental authorisation with a new EMPR and Layout plan or use an addendum, considering an EIA process for increasing fuel storage tanks and offloading stations, and correcting a validity period error.
• The CER is questioning the Minister's consideration of water usage increases, noting that water utilisation rose from a range of 50-270,000m3/year to 3,400-1.2 million m3 per year.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (2021). ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION AND APPEAL DECISION: 400MW RICHARDS BAY GAS TO POWER. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/20210923-Letter-to-DFFE.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION AND APPEAL DECISION: 400MW RICHARDS BAY GAS TO POWER. 2021. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/20210923-Letter-to-DFFE.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION AND APPEAL DECISION: 400MW RICHARDS BAY GAS TO POWER |date=23 September 2021 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/20210923-Letter-to-DFFE.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrights2021environmental, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION AND APPEAL DECISION: 400MW RICHARDS BAY GAS TO POWER}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2021}, month = sep, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/20210923-Letter-to-DFFE.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }