SA moves towards cleaner energy

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Pretoria - South Africa has signed a work plan with the International Energy Agency (IEA) that will see the country step closer to realizing its objectives on cleaner energy.

Signed by Energy Minister Dipuo Peters and Executive Director of the IEA Maria van der Hoeven on Tuesday at the IEA ministerial meeting in Paris, the work plan will result in cooperation in areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

"This will help to contribute to South Africa's efforts towards a cleaner and more efficient energy future," said the Department of Energy.

The plan comes after the IEA and South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on energy issues in July.

The two-day meeting, which ends today, is a gathering of 37 ministers coming together to talk about energy security and sustainability. It is attended by ministerial officials from 28 member countries and nine partner countries of the IEA, including South Africa. Other partner countries include Brazil, China and India.

The theme of the 2011 meeting is "Our Energy Future: Secure, Sustainable and Together" and discussions included the IEA's work on energy security, economic and environmental sustainability and engagement with non-member countries.

The IEA ministerial meeting, held once every two years, came at a time when new challenges were emerging.

These included the political changes in Arab and North African countries; the calling on the IEA to release strategic oil stock; the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in Japan, which aroused global concerns on nuclear safety; the Deepwater Horizon incident last year, which highlighted oil pollution, and the ongoing high oil prices relating to financial market volatility.

Accordingly, various seminars over the two-day meeting will focus on government and industry coordination to tackle investment challenges, ways to enhance comprehensive energy security and short-term oil market perspective, among others.

Given the negative impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa on oil-sector investment, the draft of IEA's World Energy Outlook 2011 - to be formally published in November - indicated "a more positive future outlook" for gas, and predicted global primary gas demand to reach 5.1 trillion cubic meters in 2035.

The energy outlook report may have to reassess the demand for coal and natural gas, IEA senior energy analyst Pawel Olejarnik confirmed to press recently.