A few days ago the EU released their latest emissions data. The results are remarkable!
This fall in emissions is visually presented in their submission to UNFCCC:
What is the main driver of this reduction in emissions? They say:
Electricity and heat production, residential and industrial sectors delivered the top three emission reductions. Renewables’ share in electricity and heat generation has grown substantially, and CO2 per unit of fossil energy produced has declined.
The renewable energy role in this is the remarkable story and was highlighted in the just released European State of the Climate 2025 report.
Take a look:
As you can see renewable energy produced 46.4% of Europes electricity with solar setting a new record of 12.5%.
Let's turn our attention to South Africa
Compared to what is happening in Europe, South Africa's story is very different. Here is the data representation of what South Africa submitted to the UNFCCC:
The majority of our emission are coming from power generation and in South Africa that generation comes from burning coal:
To be fair there has been some movement away from this very "dirty" energy source as highlighted below:
But we have the opportunity to dramatically change our emissions contribution by transitioning faster to solar energy. When you look at the potential we have have in this country that becomes very, very clear!
Here is the Global Solar Atlas:
Our solar potential dwarfs what is available to Europe! There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for us not to exploit this renewable resource.
South Africa does plan to transition to clean renewable energy as outlined in the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM) report. As you can see the plan is to scale up renewable energy massively.
The Solar PV plan is install 25 GW of generation power. Here is some context to help visualize this. This is roughly equivalent to 70,000 rugby fields. If you grouped it all together, it would occupy an area nearly the size of Johannesburg (approx. 1,600 km²) but dedicated entirely to solar panels!
25 GW is enough to power roughly 12 to 15 million average South African homes simultaneously during peak sun hours (assuming an average household draw of 1.5–2 kW). South Africa has about 18 million households, this target effectively represents enough capacity to cover the daytime needs of the vast majority of the country's homes.
We now need to get on with this project. We have the technology AND the know-how to do this. Don't let anyone, least of all any politician tell you that this is not possible. South Africa along with every other country needs to speed up the transition process since emissions must fall dramatically if we are going to prevent global heating from exceeding 2ºC.
There are no excuses!