Air quality and health impacts of ESKOM’s planned non-compliance with South African Minimum Emission Standards

The report finds that granting Eskom's requests for non-compliance with Minimum Emission Standards would lead to significant excess emissions of SO2, NOx, particulate matter, and mercury, resulting in an estimated 16,000 avoidable premature deaths across South Africa, with 3,100 of those in the Gauteng region.

• Granting Eskom's requests for non-compliance with the Minimum Emission Standards (MES) would result in substantial excess emissions over the remaining operating life of the power plants: an estimated 19 million tonnes of SO2, 1 million tonnes of NOx, 190,000 tonnes of particulate matter, and 200,000 kilograms of mercury.
• Full compliance with the MES could avoid an estimated 16,000 premature deaths (with a 95% confidence interval of 13,000 to 18,000), which represents a 40% reduction in the health impact of air pollution from Eskom's power stations.
• The Gauteng region is a particular public health concern due to the proximity of highly polluting plants; requiring full compliance with the MES could avoid an estimated 3,100 premature deaths in this region, including 1,000 in Johannesburg, 900 in Tshwane, and 800 in Ekurhuleni.
• Mercury emissions from Eskom's plants are projected to cause deposition levels exceeding health risk thresholds (above 125mg/ha/yr) over an area of 89,000km², affecting 3.4 million inhabitants.
• The study's modeling indicates that emissions from Eskom power plants expose 1.6 million people to at least one annual exceedance of South Africa's 1-hour SO2 air quality standard and 280,000 people to an exceedance of the 1-hour NO2 standard.

APA

Myllyvirta, L. (2019). Air quality and health impacts of ESKOM’s planned non-compliance with South African Minimum Emission Standards. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Annexure-5.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Myllyvirta, Lauri. Air quality and health impacts of ESKOM’s planned non-compliance with South African Minimum Emission Standards. Centre for Environmental Rights, 2019. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Annexure-5.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Myllyvirta |first1=Lauri |title=Air quality and health impacts of ESKOM’s planned non-compliance with South African Minimum Emission Standards |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=19 March 2019 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Annexure-5.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{myllyvirta2019air, author = {Myllyvirta, Lauri}, title = {{Air quality and health impacts of ESKOM’s planned non-compliance with South African Minimum Emission Standards}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2019}, month = mar, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Annexure-5.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }