Do South Africans really know what a just energy transition is?

[View in browser]( [Mail & Guardian]( M&G Mornings | Fri 02 Dec   This week, the Mail & Guardian will break down the meaning of our just energy transition. To some it simply means putting all our old and decrepit coal-fired power stations out to pasture. (Finally) But for the people who will most acutely be affected by these changes — the people living close to the coal mines and power plants in Mpumalanga — it may as well be a concept from Mars. While men and women in swanky suits from Europe and a growing number of lobby groups place considerable pressure on the government to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the climate crisis through such noble ventures such as the just transition, it’s the human cost to which not much attention is paid. This will not be as simple a transition as shutting down the oldest power stations and moving to greener energies that will replace both the megawatts and the livelihoods of men and women. It’s like everything South African — complicated. While South Africa traverses the world looking for funds for our energy revolution — led by the former deputy Reserve Bank governor and short lived Absa chief executive Daniel Mminele, through the Presidential Climate Finance Task Team — I wonder how much time is being spent on the ground in Mpumalanga. And how much of those funds raised are about transitioning the lives of those people, who’ve relied on those collieries and power stations since the middle of the last century. We sent our growing and incredible environment team to that province to hear what Eskom’s employees and the local residents have to say about the change. Anecdotally, they are in the dark. And here’s the jarring factor, if the state were to have to increase its already high social welfare bill — which it will if the transition isn’t just to them over the next couple of decades — the state would be penalised by bond traders. You can’t win without a considered industrialisation plan. Where is Ebrahim Patel? A New Yorker article written in 1999 by [James Surowiecki]( argued that the most important thing Bill Clinton ever said was not “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Rather, it a passage from Bob Woodward’s The Agenda in which one of the slickest politicians of our time asked the rhetorical question: “You mean to tell me that the success of the economic programme and my re-election hinges on the Federal Reserve and a bunch of fucking bond traders?” It’s one of my favourite lines. It rings very true today and especially for a very affable president in Cyril Ramaphosa to the whims of an international investment public that is willing to finance our just transition — as long as it means more windmills and solar panels. There’s little appetite for a solution inclusive of our socioeconomic conditions, regardless of what the July protests of 2021 warned. I’m sounding rather cynical, I know. I just haven’t heard enough about the people’s cost or the industrial benefits of the transition. Also, are renewables supposed to be a baseload replacement — or are we still living in hope that technology inspired by Elon Musk will eventually get us there? The US, with a population more than 300 million, has 92 nuclear plants, which is clean energy by most measures. The UK, with its almost 70 million population, has eight nuclear plants, and France a ridiculous 56 plants for a population a similar size to that of the UK. These are, by all definitions, energy secure nations that can go on to dream up industrialisation plans. I’ll talk about Africa as a country, like some commentators irritatingly do. It has a population of more than 1.4 billion and has just one nuclear power station, in the Western Cape, and another just starting operations in Egypt. Will renewable energy make up the shortfall, enabling the continent to no longer be a shopper in this global economy but an exporter in its own right. Thanks again for being a supporter of the Mail & Guardian, speak again tomorrow … Ron Derby | Editor-in-Chief [@RonDerby]( [Subscribe now]( to enjoy unlimited access to The Mail & Guardian for only R99 per month. -->   [File photo]( Premium [Phala Phala fallout: David Mabuza or Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is the question]( The ANC may have to decide between Mabuza and Dlamini-Zuma after Kgalema Motlanthe showed no interest in the position Join thousands of South Africans who want a more just South Africa. Read past party lines, past the bluster and the distortion. Get the best reporting, analysis and commentary that is factual, balanced and fair with uninterrupted access to all Mail & Guardian content online. 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