SA will clean up its own act – Zuma

President Jacob Zuma has announced that South Africa will forge ahead with its own commitments to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of agreements reached at COP17.

He told business leaders at the climate change conference in Durban yesterday that his government would launch the South African Renewable Initiative (Sari) which would fund large-scale renewable developments.

Energy Minister Dipuo Peters and Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies will sign a partnership at COP17 with government officials from the UK, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and the European Investment Bank who will help fund the initiative.

Zuma recalled that he had announced on the eve of the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009 that SA would reduce its carbon emissions by 34 percent by 2020 and by 42 percent by 2025.

He told the World Economic Forum Green Partnership Dialogue at COP17 that the government would invest billions of rand in mass transport systems as a way of “greening” the economy.

“Government will invest in mass-transport systems to reduce reliance on private cars. Initial steps have been taken on bus rapid transport and commuter rail,” said Zuma.

He said the government would review its rail investment programme in order to accelerate the shift of freight transport to rail from road.

“By 2014, the state-owned commuter rail company Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) will invest R20 billion in new trains, most of which will be manufactured locally,” said Zuma.

This was part of the government’s New Growth Path which sought to reduce emissions by focusing on renewable and nuclear energy, green transport and the built environment.

State-owned transport entity Transnet would invest about R63bn in the freight rail system over the next five years, he said.

“For its part, organised business will continue to promote greater use of rail freight by companies.”

Zuma stressed that the country’s Green Economy Accord had a strong commitment to employing young people and those historically excluded from the economy.

“In particular, government and business have set a target of 80 percent youth among new employees in the manufacturing and installation of solar water heating systems as well as government’s public works programmes to green the economy,” he said.

It was imperative that poor communities did not end up footing the bill, whether through job losses or high prices.

Eskom and business would work to create technologies to reduce emissions from coal-fired plants and the solar and wind energy industries in the country had set a target of creating 50 000 green jobs by 2020.

“The government will also support the installation of 1 million solar water heating systems by 2014 to 2015,” said Zuma.

Yesterday Zuma launched a solar power plant in Hazelmere, KwaZulu-Natal, which will give communities in the area clean electricity.

He said the partnership between Soitec and the eThekwini municipality, which led to the development of the solar plant, was also designed to include skills development in which the local community would benefit.

He pointed out that Africa had abundant renewable energy sources and these needed to be harnessed in building an inclusive and sustainable green economy.

Zuma said changing weather patterns were causing extreme weather patterns. If nothing was done, climate change would leave South Africa with uninhabitable wastelands and socio-economic disasters.

South Africa’s special envoy for COP17, Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, said at the weekend the negotiations had “advanced considerably” but differences remained.

She confirmed that the main deal on the table was the European Union’s conditional offer to sign on to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol when the first period expired at the end of next year.

Christiana Figueres, chief executive of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is organising COP17, said good progress had been made on all negotiating tracks especially the proposed new broader legal treaty for curbing emissions. - Pretoria News

• Billions invested for green economy