Environmental activists have launched a lawsuit to force the government to reduce air pollution in the coal-rich Highveld area, a landmark case that threatens to add R300bn to debt-saddled Eskom’s spending plans and also turns the spotlight on energy giant Sasol.
Sasol, whose primary business is to turn coal into petrol, and state-owned electricity utility Eskom have already been granted permission to delay compliance with the emission standards set by the government until 2025 due to the cost of altering their plants on time.
If the case argued by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) succeeds, the government will have to enforce compliance among large emitters on the highveld. This includes Eskom, which has 12 of its 15 coal-fired power stations in the area, as well as Sasol, which runs the world’s largest coal-to-liquids plant in Secunda.
Eskom, which is struggling with a R420bn debt burden, said the total cost of full compliance with the emission standards at all plants would top R300bn and increase electricity prices by 7%-10%. It’s unclear how long it would take for Eskom to tweak its power plants should CER win the case.
The latest capital expenditure figure is nearly double the R187bn Eskom had said it would cost when it applied for permission to delay compliance with the new standards, which come into effect in 2020.
A Sasol spokesperson said the figure had not been disclosed but that it would be significant.
GroundWork and Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action, represented by the CER, claim that the government has violated the constitutional right to a healthy environment for the people living and working in the Highveld by failing to improve the deadly levels of air pollution there.
The respondents in the case, dubbed “Deadly Air”, include environmental affairs minister Barbara Creecy, the national air quality officer and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The CER has said Eskom's estimates of the R300bn cost of
compliance are unrealistically high, while an independent review by Greenpeace Africa found an accompanying costbenefit analysis substantially underestimated the health effects of its coal-fired power stations.
Robyn Hugo, attorney at the CER, noted that Eskom and Sasol are not cited in the case, and that the applicants are simply seeking for the government to do its job and enforce compliance with the law.
PRIORITY AREA
In 2007, the minister of environmental affairs declared a 31,000km² area cutting across the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces to be a “priority area”, acknowledging it as an air pollution hotspot.
In 2012, the minister published an air-quality management plan to clean up the pollution and to significantly reduce it by 2020. But to date, the applicants say, little has changed and air pollution in the Highveld Priority Area still far exceeds the national standards.
Groundwork and Vukani are asking the court to declare the current levels of air pollution on the highveld a violation of people’s constitutional rights, and to force the minister to design regulations that will see its air quality management plan implemented and enforced.
The environmental justice groups say they have resorted to litigation because of the government’s repeated failure to enforce air quality laws.
“The poor air quality has significant and direct impacts on human health and wellbeing, causing premature deaths and chronic respiratory and other illnesses,” the applicants said in the founding affidavit.
One expert estimate, as included in the court papers, found emissions caused between 305 and 650 early deaths in and around the Highveld Priority Area in 2016.
“Living in Witbank, one of the most polluted areas in the country, has hugely affected our health and lives,” Vusi Mabaso, chair of Vukani, said in a statement.
HEALTH CRISIS
“Both government and industry have continuously failed to deal with the problem, irrespective of our efforts to engage with them to ensure they take steps to protect human health.”
Bobby Peek, director of Groundwork, said the government is not holding the big polluters to account. “This is a public health crisis that can no longer be ignored,” he said.