RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT TO BE CONDUCTED BY THABAMETSI POWER PROJECT (PTY) LTD

The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), on behalf of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, provides recommendations to improve the scope of the Climate Change Impact Assessment (CCIA) and Palaeontological Impact Assessment Report (PIAR) for the proposed 1200MW Thabametsi coal-fired power station near Lephalale, Limpopo. The CER argues that the current scoping report is too narrow and fails to align with international best practices or South Africa's climate commitments under the Paris Agreement and its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).

• The current scoping report for the Climate Change Impact Assessment (CCIA) is deemed inadequate because it focuses only on a simple greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions assessment, omitting the impacts that climate change will have on the project's operation and the project's effect on South Africa's environmental and societal resilience.
• The proposed project's water demand of 1,300,000m3 per annum is highlighted as a significant risk given that Limpopo was declared a drought disaster area in November 2015 and South Africa is among the world's 30 driest countries.
• The CER argues that the CCIA must account for the project's full life-cycle and cumulative emissions, including the mining and transportation of coal, rather than focusing solely on the operational phase.
• The document asserts that the project's assessment should be measured against South Africa's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), which targets emissions between 398 and 614 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent for 2025-2030, and the obligations of the Paris Agreement.
• Regarding the Palaeontological Impact Assessment, the CER notes that the project area includes the Clarens Formation of the Karoo Supergroup, which is of high palaeontological significance, and that final comments from the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) were missing from the final Environmental Impact Report.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (2016). RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT TO BE CONDUCTED BY THABAMETSI POWER PROJECT (PTY) LTD. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/CER-comments-on-scoping-report-for-Thabametsi_25-May-2016.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT TO BE CONDUCTED BY THABAMETSI POWER PROJECT (PTY) LTD. 2016. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/CER-comments-on-scoping-report-for-Thabametsi_25-May-2016.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT TO BE CONDUCTED BY THABAMETSI POWER PROJECT (PTY) LTD |date=25 May 2016 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/CER-comments-on-scoping-report-for-Thabametsi_25-May-2016.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrights2016recommendations, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT TO BE CONDUCTED BY THABAMETSI POWER PROJECT (PTY) LTD}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2016}, month = may, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/CER-comments-on-scoping-report-for-Thabametsi_25-May-2016.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }