Pixabay
South Africa saw a sharp decrease in Sulfur Dioxide emissions in 2019, bringing the country’s emissions to their lowest level on record.
This is according to “new research” by Greenpeace India and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
In a statement on Monday, the organisation said the fall likely resulted from the temporary reduction in coal-fired power generation, which led to load shedding.
However, Greenpeace said while encouraging at first glance, South Africa's emissions are still well above what is recommended by the World Health Organisation.
The Kriel area in Mpumalanga was identified by Greenpeace research last year as a global hotspot for SO2 emissions and is still a global hotspot by annual emission amount.
“It is also the largest hotspot in Africa and the largest hotspot driven by coal combustion worldwide.”
Greenpeace said that it was “unfortunate that we cannot celebrate this reduction in emissions as an indication that the South African government is trying to protect the people of South Africa.”
“Instead, it is an indication of their ineptitude at dealing with corruption at Eskom. It is years of mismanagement that cause our air pollution levels to drop - not because there were deliberate measures taken to drop them, but because the power tripped," said Nhlanhla Sibisi, climate, and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Africa.
Sibisi said further research was is needed to better understand the drop in emissions but he said data suggests that load shedding may account for the reduction in emissions from 2018 to 2019.
