Carbon capture and storage in South Africa

Some three-quarters of South Africa’s primary energy supply and 93 percent of its electricity are derived from coal (NER, 2002; DME, 2003b). Even in more optimistic energy policy scenarios (De Villiers and others, 1999; EDRC, 2003; Banks & Schäffler, 2005), coal continues to provide for the majority of South Africa’s energy needs over the next 20 to 30 years. Almost 80 percent of GHG emissions come from the energy sector—both supply and use—and most of these are in the form of carbon dioxide (Van der Merwe & Scholes, 1998; RSA, 2004). Making South Africa’s energy system more sustainable is a transition that will take decades. Making energy development in South Africa more sustainable will require attention to solutions that deal with CO2 emissions from coal. Together, these factors mean that an evaluation of the sustainability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies is an important element of climate policy