School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies (ETDs)

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Browsing School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies (ETDs) by SDG "SDG-7: Affordable and clean energy"

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    From Coal to Renewable Energy: Perspectives on South Africa's Energy Transition for a Sustainable Future.
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Sebele, Temperance; Simatele, Mulala Danny
    South Africa has been experiencing an unstable electricity supply for years, leading to periods of load shedding from 2007 up to the present date. The electricity shortages have been attributed to distinct reasons, ranging from inefficient coal supply, skills shortages, sabotage by employees and lack of maintenance for nearly sixteen years. In addition to the electricity supply shortages, coal-fired electricity generation is responsible for roughly 80 per cent of South Africa’s total greenhouse gas emissions due to fossil fuel dependence, leading to many health, climate, and environmental challenges. To address the challenges related to fossil fuel dependency, moving to Renewable Energy sources that are climate and environmentally friendly is a necessity. The aim of this study was to investigate the optimal approaches that South Africa can embark on for a successful transition from coal to renewables. The institutional, policy, and strategic frameworks that exist within which South Africa can embark on for a successful transition were explored. Furthermore, the study sought to identify the challenges, and opportunities that exist or hinder the transition in South Africa. Lastly, the study explored how developments in the international policy frameworks influence South Africa’s ambitions to transition to renewables. The study is best suited to the pragmatism approach, and data were collected through the reviewing of literature, key-informant interviews, and questionnaires. A mixed-methods strategy that involved gathering both qualitative and quantitative data was employed and primary and secondary sources of data were used. The primary data sources used included key informants from various private and public institutions with an interest in South Africa’s energy matters such as ESKOM, SANEDI, SANEA, SAREC, SAPVIA, SAWEA, SAIPPA and NECSA. The non-probability sampling method was used in the participants’ selection from the sampled study institutions, with a combination of judgmental, snowballing and convenience sampling procedures employed at distinct phases of the research. Data collected was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, with interviews text data transcribed and analysed through manual tabulation and thematic analysis, and presented in graphs generated from Microsoft Excel, and the data from questionnaires analysed through the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The study revealed that the government played mainly four leading roles in the energy transition, which were providing financial support, legislative direction, institutional direction, and project oversight. Financial support is provided through financing projects and setting up financing policies that promote renewable energy investment, and legislative direction is provided through policy development and ensuring efficient implementation. Providing institutional direction is ensured through ensuring coordination across all spheres of government and capacitating institutions involved in the transition, and project oversight is provided through setting out renewable energy capacity determinations. The study further identified key energy transition elements, namely infrastructure, governance, legislation, stakeholders’ perceptions, and skills and strategies for a successful transition, which included channelling adequate financial resources to the renewable energy sector, privatisation of the electricity utility, diversification, rolling out bid windows, improving the legislative framework, improving grid access and integration, skills development, localisation of RE components manufacturing, providing incentives, and increasing consumer awareness about renewables. Several barriers to the transition were also identified, which included political interference and corruption, lack of financial investment, policies/legislation inadequacy, inconsistency in rolling out bidding windows, ESKOM’s monopoly, high cost of renewables, deficiency of incentives, skills and technology, labour unions, and deficiency of awareness on alternatives. The study recommends multisector reskilling of employees, since not all employees in the coal value chain may be interested in or able to be absorbed in the Renewable Energy sector. Furthermore, the government should fund and support progressive technologies and business models, improve the quality of institutions through merit-based appointments and uprooting corruption, privatisation of ESKOM to create opportunities for new entrants in the electricity market and improve stakeholder engagement and community support programmes. The UNFCCC must develop and ensure the implementation of enforcement strategies for holding countries accountable for their climate commitments for the transition to be realised
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    Integration of Sustainable Development Principles and Climate Change Adaptation Measures in Energy Optimization in Gold Mining in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Nadunga, Irene; Simatele, Mulala Danny
    South Africa located in the sub-Saharan African region and being a mining-intense country, is reported to be affected by extreme weather events which are increasing the country’s vulnerability to climate change impacts and therefore reducing the chances of achieving sustainable development. In light of this, mining companies are being pressured to make strong commitments towards implementation of sustainable development principles for sustainable mining. This study therefore aimed at investigating how sustainable development principles and climate change adaptation measures are interlinked and structured; and embedded in a gold mining company’s policies and strategies, in an effort to build the mining operations’ adaptive capacity and resilience against the impacts of climate change and achieve energy optimization. The challenges that can potentially prevent the effective integration of the sustainability principles and adaptation measures were also explored. Using a case study approach, this study was centered on the gold mining operations located within the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa. Research data was collected from multiple sources, therefore employing a mixed method approach by applying the concurrent triangulation technique. Different analytical tools of policy, content and inductive data analysis, and descriptive statistical data analysis were applied. The empirical evidence shows that the gold mining operations are faced with increasing operating costs associated with the increased energy consumption and implementation of costly mining practices in an effort to combat the impacts of extreme weather events caused by climate change. This affirms that a relationship exists between climate change and energy use in gold mining. In an effort to address climate related risks and energy security, gold mining operations are implementing energy efficiency measures and using renewable energy in their energy mix; which measures are seen to integrate sustainability principles, therefore adopted as sustainability adaptation measures. In addition, some mining company policies and strategies are also seen to integrate sustainability principles and adaptation measures, in an effort to guide the mining operations in effectively developing and implementing sustainability adaptation measures, designed to holistically address climate related risks and energy security. This affirms that a relationship exists between sustainable development principles, climate change adaptation measures and energy optimization. This therefore, implies that sustainability principles and adaptation measures can be integrated to form sustainability adaptation measures, and that gold mining companies have the potential to achieve sustainable mining and contribute to sustainable development, particularly achieving SDG 7 and SDG 13.