Development and Climate Change: Convergent or Divergent? A Look at South Africa's Coal Dependency and its Green Targets

This research paper examines the tension between South Africa's developmental goals and its climate change commitments, highlighting the country's heavy reliance on coal for electricity and the challenges of transitioning to a lower-carbon economy while addressing poverty and energy shortages.

• South Africa is the 13th largest emitter of anthropogenic gases, primarily because 90% of its electricity is generated from coal combustion, with only 10% coming from nuclear, hydro-electric, and renewable sources.
• The country faces significant barriers to abandoning coal-fired power, including a comparative advantage in coal abundance, a critical electricity supply constraint where demand exceeds supply, and the necessity of affordable energy to halve poverty by 2015. To address capacity, South Africa is expanding coal-fired capacity through the construction of the Medupi (4,800 MW) and Kusile (5,400 MW) plants, and re-commissioning the Camden, Grootvlei, and Komati stations (3,800 MW combined).
• South Africa has proposed ambitious emission cuts of 25% before 2020 and 42% before 2025 relative to 'business as usual' levels to signal its commitment in global negotiations and avert severe climate effects on the African continent.
• Global climate negotiations, specifically the December 2009 Copenhagen conference, failed to produce binding agreements due to disputes over 'climate justice'. South Africa's position aligned with China's in defending the right of developing nations to reduce emissions voluntarily rather than through binding targets, and in criticizing the lack of binding intermediate goals for developed nations for 2025.
• To meet its targets, South Africa is implementing environmental fiscal reforms, including a carbon tax on passenger vehicles starting September 2010, a planned environmental tax on non-renewable electricity, and discussions regarding a tax on coal companies and their loads to Eskom.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2010). Development and Climate Change: Convergent or Divergent? A Look at South Africa's Coal Dependency and its Green Targets. https://saiia.org.za/research/development-and-climate-changeconvergent-or-divergent-a-look-at-south-africas-coal-dependency-and-its-green-targets/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Development and Climate Change: Convergent or Divergent? A Look at South Africa's Coal Dependency and its Green Targets. 2010. https://saiia.org.za/research/development-and-climate-changeconvergent-or-divergent-a-look-at-south-africas-coal-dependency-and-its-green-targets/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Development and Climate Change: Convergent or Divergent? A Look at South Africa's Coal Dependency and its Green Targets |date=8 September 2010 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/development-and-climate-changeconvergent-or-divergent-a-look-at-south-africas-coal-dependency-and-its-green-targets/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2010development, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Development and Climate Change: Convergent or Divergent? A Look at South Africa's Coal Dependency and its Green Targets}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2010}, month = sep, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/development-and-climate-changeconvergent-or-divergent-a-look-at-south-africas-coal-dependency-and-its-green-targets/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }