South Africa's top climate policy body, the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), suggested delaying the closure of aging coal-fired power plants to eliminate the power shortages, emphasizing it would not impact the country's ability to achieve its carbon emission targets, Reuters reported.

Postponing the decommission schedule of power plants by a couple of years would not fundamentally affect the country's NDC (nationally determined contributions to emissions reductions), while the country is likely to keep pace with emission reduction simply by the deepened power cuts and slow economic growth, said Crispian Olver, executive director of the PCC.

Besides, shutting the coal plants down when they reach the end of their economic life is the most cost-effective way

The state-run power utilities Eskom has been imposing severe power cuts lasting over 10 hours a day for most households, which is the most severe in the country's history. These power cuts are severely impacting businesses in Africa's most industrialized economy, according to Reuters.

South Africa is heavily reliant on coal for electricity. It is the world's 14 largest carbon emitter in 2021, ahead of some bigger economies like Britain, Mexico and Australia, according to data from Global Carbon Atlas.

The African National Congress, the governing party, has suggested Eskom pull off the decommissioning of its aging power plants to ease power shortage, while it also committed to a plan partly funded by several Western countries, which aims to accelerate the transition from coal to renewable energy sources.

(Writing by Emma Yang  Editing by Harry Huo)
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