Parliament, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 – The Portfolio Committee on Environment, Forestry and Fisheries received briefings today from the Department of Health on the cost of air pollution in South Africa, from Eskom and Sasol on their non-compliance with the environmental laws.
The committee is generally satisfied with compliance of Sasol with their obligations on air quality. Furthermore, the committee was informed that Sasol has progressed in their compliance journey from 80% of their emission sources being compliant with the Minimum Emissions Standards to 98% of their emission sources, currently being compliant with the residual point sources being addressed through air quality compliance roadmaps in accordance with postponements that were granted.
The committee was informed that Eskom is not complying due to delays encountered by the air quality offset programme. Eskom has told the committee that due to excessive financial, outage and resource requirements of 100% compliance, the entity has adopted a phased and prioritised approach for 57% compliance by 2025. According to Eskom, this approach has been accepted by government.
The committee believes that as much as Eskom is lagging behind in complying with the minimum emission standards, the entity should take the risk of financial loss and loss of employment into consideration. Whilst the country is committed to these international multilateral decisions, there is a reality of the challenge of the lack of financial resources when it comes to the development of the energy technology to meet the required standards.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES, MR FIKILE XASA.
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