Abstract
M.A.
To date, the world’s economy has been resource intensive and economic development continues to place demands on the world’s natural resource base. South Africa is one of the top 10 producers of coal world-wide, with a significant amount of electricity being generated from this fossil fuel. This process produces particulates that intensify air pollution, and emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere; this increases health risks and also triggers climate change. Some of the effects of climate change can include unpredictable weather patterns, natural disasters, and disrupted ecosystems.
To supply the electricity demands of the country’s growing population, the South African government has recently invested in additional coal-fired power stations, namely Kusile in Mpumalanga and Medupi in the Limpopo province. Although there has been some progress with respect to the country’s attempt to diversify its energy mixes, this has been slow and taking place on a small scale. With the use of coal dominating the mix at 67% in 2010, 19% from oil, 10% from solid biomass and waste, whilst nuclear and natural gas contributed 2% each, with hydro contributing less than 1%. This indicates that South Africa has a long way to go in its efforts towards transitioning to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economic growth path more so within the context of the Limits to Growth (LtG) as propounded by Meadows et al. 1972).
In order avert the constraints arising from the LtG governments have been increasing efforts towards transitioning to a green economy, with the aim to improve the efficiency of natural resource use in order to improve human wellbeing and reduce ecological scarcities and environmental risks. Currently in South Africa, the transition to a green economy is driven and stirred by the current global development agenda, which is focused on sustainable development practices. In addition, some of the green economy interventions are stimulated by following international best practices in an attempt to respond to the socio-economic and environmental problems caused by traditional economic growth approaches which have relentlessly undervalued ecological goods and services...