Pretoria - There is a great need for South Africa to move away from a coal-based economy, says Energy Minister Dipuo Peters.
Speaking in the United Kingdom as part of President Jacob Zuma's delegation to that country on Wednesday, Peters said though climate deliberations in Copenhagen were disappointing, there is optimism that countries will adopt binding targets addressing emission reduction.
"There is therefore a need for our energy sector to be diversified by ensuring that our electricity is also produced from cleaner alternative energy sources," she said.
"We need to be greener by producing more renewable energy and using existing energy and other resources more efficiently and sparingly to enable us to meet our needs while also compromising the future generation's ability to meet theirs," explained Peters.
She said the country needed to diversify its energy mix away from relying on coal while also addressing the need to reduce the country's carbon footprint.
Peters said having undertaken pilot projects on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); her department has embarked on a drive to promote the use of LPG by households for space heating and cooking.
"As a first step in our efforts to promote LPG, we will promulgate Regulations for the retail price of LPG supplied to residential customers before the end of April 2010," she said.
