‘South Africa must lead at COP27, and accelerate the Just Transition at home’ 25 October 2022

Ahead of next month’s Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP27, the LAC campaign – which includes Earthlife Africa, groundWork and the Centre for Environmental Rights, calls on the South African government to play a leading role at COP27, and to stand in solidarity with developing and climate vulnerable countries, particularly those on the African continent, on a range of issues. The Campaign also calls on the South African government to do what is necessary at home to meet the lower bound of our own climate target range by progressing the Just Transition and the coal phase-out, and accelerating the roll-out of public, private and socially-owned renewable energy. South Africa’s position in relation to global climate policy and action.

…Support a new vision for Africa's development - one which is not fossil fuel dependent, but which creates clean energy access for all without locking Africa and its people into expensive, polluting and unnecessary coal, gas and oil infrastructure. Align South Africa with the understanding that the global energy crisis, predicated by the invasion of Ukraine, is not a clean energy crisis, but is the result of an over-dependence on fossil fuels, as confirmed by the head of the International Energy Agencyand others. The solution is not to reopen coal plants and to lock in gas, but rapidly to expand renewable energy capacity.

…The Life After Coal campaign calls for zero fossil fuels in electricity generation by 2040 at the latest, and a zero fossil fuel economy by 2050. This means accelerating the retirement of our coal fleet at a rate faster than that prescribed by the timetable in the IRP 2019. “Coal pollution is killing our people and destroying their health. This is a gross Constitutional and human rights violation that cannot continue,” says Thomas Mnguni, groundWork coal campaigner.