By Quinn Patwardhan, Sidwell Friends School
During the COP26 Summit held in early Nov., the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union announced a partnership with South Africa that would reduce the nation’s reliance on coal. South Africa is currently responsible for around 1.29% of global carbon dioxide emissions, making it the world’s 12th biggest emitter of CO2. Coal provides over 80% of South Africa’s energy and serves as one of the nation’s most important exports, explaining the country’s reliance on coal from both an energy and an economic standpoint. Furthermore, South Africa’s state utility company Eskom is in over $27 billion of debt, caused in part by its investments in coal power plants.
All of this has led the U.S., U.K., and the E.U. to grant South Africa over $8.5 billion in funding to make the country more reliant on renewable energy sources. According to the Millenium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB), a Stanford Initiative, the Earth will run out of coal by 2090, revealing the necessity of shifting away from fossil fuels. Additionally, the warming of the globe at an ever-increasing rate, which has already had devastating impacts from floods to wildfires to drought to famine, highlights the urgency of reducing fossil fuel usage from an environmental standpoint. Thus, this partnership between South Africa and the E.U., U.K., and the U.S., will be testing the waters for how developing countries that are heavily reliant on fossil fuels can transition to renewable energy in an attempt to slow climate change.
Billy Walsh, Sidwell Friends School
Shifting away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources will be no easy feat for South Africa. While the nation was able to secure $8.5 billion from wealthier nations, they will need over $30 billion to fully transition away from coal. Not only that, but South Africa’s job market is also heavily dependent on coal for employment. According to Bloomberg Green, switching to renewable energy could cost the country over 120,000 coal jobs, which would undoubtedly devastate its economy. As of 2019, over 200,000 South Africans have jobs related to coal, meaning that this shift to renewables must also incorporate employment and retraining opportunities for the country’s entire coal workforce.
Without the U.S., U.K., and E.U.’s financial support, South Africa’s ability to transition away from fossil fuels would be more limited. According to the World Resources Institute, developed countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and European nations make up a combined 21.14% of all CO2 emissions. This means that in order to limit the planet’s warming, these countries will either have to cut back on their own emissions or will have to find other methods to reduce the global burning of fossil fuels. Currently, developed countries seem to view facilitating a reduction in the emissions of developing nations, where the switch to renewables is more cost-effective, as their best option. Partnerships like the one between South Africa and the U.S., U.K., and E.U. are likely to become commonplace as rich nations attempt to fight climate change using large sums of cash rather than meaningful changes to their own country’s laws.
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