record-13.2-pg-1-10-1ee4e46b62189b90.pdf

The Eskom Air Quality Strategy (April 2020) outlines a phased approach to reducing atmospheric emissions from its power stations to comply with South African legislation and maintain its licence to operate. The strategy focuses on particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and mercury, utilizing a combination of operational improvements, emission abatement retrofits, and air quality offsets.

• Eskom's Air Quality Strategy aims to reduce particulate and gaseous emissions to minimize impacts on human health and the environment, maintain its legal licence to operate, and reduce financial and legal liabilities.
• The strategy identifies four primary strategic initiatives: improving operational and maintenance practices, implementing an emission abatement retrofit programme for high-emitting stations, rolling out air quality offsets in low-income areas, and seeking legal leniency for Minimum Emission Standards (MES).
• The emission abatement retrofit programme is projected to increase compliance with national emission standards from 59% to 76%.
• The implementation of Eskom's emission reduction plan involves significant resource requirements and environmental trade-offs, including a CAPEX cost of R118 billion (2015 nominal cost), an annual OPEX of approximately R2 billion, and a 7% increase in water consumption (23.4 million m3/annum).
• All of Eskom's coal-fired power stations are located in National Priority Areas—specifically the Waterberg, Vaal Triangle, and Highveld—where ambient air quality standards are often exceeded.
• Current compliance status indicates that while all coal-fired stations have PM abatement technology, none have NOx or SO2 emission control, except for the Medupi and Kusile stations (once Medupi's FGD is retrofitted).
• Eskom acknowledges that its emissions harm health and cause premature mortalities, and notes that NGOs have threatened to close power stations for non-compliance.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (n.d.). record-13.2-pg-1-10-1ee4e46b62189b90.pdf. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Record-13.2-pg-1-10.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. record-13.2-pg-1-10-1ee4e46b62189b90.pdf. n.d. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Record-13.2-pg-1-10.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=record-13.2-pg-1-10-1ee4e46b62189b90.pdf |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Record-13.2-pg-1-10.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centreforenvironmentalrightsndrecord132pg1101ee4e46b62189b90pdf, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{record-13.2-pg-1-10-1ee4e46b62189b90.pdf}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Record-13.2-pg-1-10.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }