Dr Crispian Olver, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Commission

Phasing out South Africa’s dependence on coal for energy and switching to renewable energy sources will be cheaper for national energy utility Eskom, said Crispian Olver, executive director of the Presidential Climate Commission.

Also, if the South African economy does not decarbonise it faces major risks to its sustainability, as South African products will be penalised in global markets because of this reliance, he said.

South Africa is “grappling very intensively” with how to switch from its fossil fuel-dependent economy to a sustainable economy, Olver said. This is a challenge because, as a developing country, South Africa faces “very serious” resource constraints, plus its economy is “not where it should be”.

It is “very significant” that a country facing these challenges has established a Presidential Climate Commission that has a mandate to create national consensus around its international commitment to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050, Olver said.

Climate 360 is taking place at an interesting time, just after the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow earlier this month. At the conference the global community agreed that it is important to contain global warming to just 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a tough task as global warming has already reached 1.1°C above those levels, Olver said.

South Africa is one of the countries that updated its goal for reducing its emissions, known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC), but it is of concern that when all the submitted NDCs from all the countries that have submitted them are added up, global warming is on track to reach 2.5°C above pre-industrial levels, Olver said.