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Surviving the green transition

outh African President Cyril Ramaphosa the coal mines and power plants are in fa-
Slabelled it a “watershed moment” when vour of the transition away from the fossil
his country was offered more than $US8 bil- fuel, citing health problems from breathing
lion during the COP26 Climate Summit to in sulphur dioxide.
wean itself off coal. But African Resources But like Mafa, a number of vocal South
Development managing director Naphtally Africans are questioning just how smooth
Mafa chose to play devil’s advocate during the transition will be. The National Union
Africa Down Under, asking how the green of Metalworkers of South Africa anticipates
transition will land on its feet. more than 100,000 jobs associated to coal
“In South Africa, we are working and de- mining will vanish and its members are not
veloping projects. We are investing in the confident in future employment.
technology that deals with emissions, we “No social plans, as far as we know, have
are going to drive the message ahead, that been developed to assist all those commu-
the coal, is too much of it, it’s not just,” South nities who are going to be affected by that,”
African-raised Mafa said. “[But] I was think- Union spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi told
ing, is the ‘just’ transition, here, just? the BBC last year.
“We’ve got 300 years’ worth of coal here, “If you’re not going to replace those jobs
and we’re ditching that for a ‘just’ transition.” with something, you’re going to turn that en-
South Africa draws from its large coal Naphtally Mafa tire province into a ghost town.”
mining industry for both energy needs and South Africa anticipates solar and wind
economic power. Today, the sector contrib- energy contributions by up to 60% by 2030. power will contribute to a quarter of its en-
utes to nearly 80% of the country’s energy More than 40 other countries – including ergy needs by 2030.
needs, 5% of GDP and up to 125,000 jobs. the US, Canada and UK – pledged to phase “Coal-dependant towns,” Mafa said.
In 2011, South Africa produced more than out foreign investments in fossil fuels dur- “Where is the base load of all of this solar
255mt of coal. ing the summit. However, Australia, China, coming from? Who is manufacturing the so-
But Ramaphosa was eager to work with Japan and India, did not make the same lar panels?”
foreign partners during COP26, pledging commitment. – Fraser Palamara
to transition South Africa away from coal’s Back in South Africa, locals who live near

Digital knowledge is power

ringing satellite-powered data to the regulated mining. “You can use this tool baselining, for example from 1990-2019,
Bentirety of Africa has the potential to for resource extraction for better monitor- you can see what is happening on the site
create nearly $3 billion in value according ing, governance and control of regulated as you’re constructing a development or
to research by the World Economic Fo- mining…you can limit the negative impact extraction site,” Jorand explained.
rum (WEF). there.” Analysing data produced by the satel-
Digital Earth Africa, a programme Prospective developers and explorers lites can be as simple as comparing two
backed by the Australian Government can also compare sets of data, such as images, or as complex as comparing all
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, yearly snapshots of changing land cover data sets available on the entire digital
looks to fulfil this goal as it brings the and environments, before constructing platform.
space-based coverage to a number of mine sites and work camps. “What we wish our impact will achieve is
countries in the continent. “You can also use this tool as historical that the countries are empowered with ob-
“The objective of the programme is to servation, so they can monitor what is hap-
really give satellite access to everyone in pening around land, water, resources and
Africa,” Digital Earth Africa managing di- human settlement, enabling them to make
rector Cedric Jorand said. “[And] to pro- evidence-based decisions,” Jorand said.
vide routine and operational service so that “A report from the WEF estimated that
governments, industries and communities this…can be worth up to $2.7 billion be-
can use this data to make informed deci- tween agriculture, productivity boosts,
sions.” mining and for just the accelerated growth
The kind of informed decisions govern- of the observation industry.”
ments and communities can make from Digital Earth Africa is experiencing a
the free to access data would support warm reception in the continent so far, in-
public health, urban planning, maritime, cluding being used by the Ghana Statisti-
disaster risk reduction, security and civil cal Service, which is using it for monitoring
protection, agriculture and even mining patterns of land use and land cover change
and resources. from urbanisation and unregulated mining.
“This tool is already used in the mining – Fraser Palamara
sector,” Jorand explained as he showed
examples of land degradation due to un-
Cedric Jorand

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