ESBI Carbon Solutions monitor Climate Change Talks
South Africa is hosting the 17th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 17) in Durban (28 November to 9 December 2011) and this marks a critical moment in the ongoing international climate change negotiations. The COP is a meeting of high level officials from countries that have signed United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which encourages countries to stabilise their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to avoid adverse affects on the climate system. As a member of the ESBI Carbon Solutions team Shaw Chamunorwa is in Durban keeping up to date on the progress of the COP and attending many COP side events.
COP 17 is critical because the commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, will expire on 31 December 2012 and efforts must be made to replace it with a new binding agreement. It is critical to resolve the future of the Kyoto Protocol because the Protocol contains key rules to quantify and monitor the mitigation efforts of member states. It also contains important market based mechanisms that allow countries to reach their mitigation targets in a cost efficient way.
South Africa as the host of the conference has the opportunity to surpass all international expectations by being instrumental in making a new agreement post 2012 possible. South Africa is very aware of the importance of this role as it will be affected adversely by the effects of climate change. The consequences could be very significant if there are no tangible efforts, goals and targets that are set to address and mitigate effects of GHG emissions.
A viable route to reducing GHG emissions which is being adopted by South Africa is the immense focus on the Renewable Energy sector by the government. South Africa is presently one of the world’s most exciting renewables markets. The Government has adopted a twenty year renewables sector master plan under its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2010. About 42% (17.8 GW) of new generation is proposed to come from renewables. Furthermore, the National Treasury is expected to introduce carbon taxes in 2012. This will, arguably, further boost renewable energy competitiveness within the country.
Initially the government had Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (REFIT) as a planned route to the renewables market but has since replaced it with the famed Independent Power Plant Procurement Programme released in August and asks for 3,725 MW of which about 91% relates to wind and solar. This programme uses a revised tariff as a cap, with competitive price bidding taking place up to the cap. The first bid submission closed on the 4th of November 2011 and expected successful bidders are scheduled to be announced on the 25th of November 2011. A total of 53 bids were received by the Department of Energy representing over 2,100 MW of potential renewable energy proving that there is a real potential for a strong renewables market in South Africa which can start to address the climate change problem by developing clean energy solutions.
