Vote No on Energy Apartheid

By Julia Dowling

U.S. tax-payer dollars could potentially fund the construction of the world’s third largest coal-fired power plant in South Africa, the second project of its kind in South Africa in a year. Soon, the United States Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) will vote whether or not to make a loan to South Africa’s state-owned utility, Eskom, to continue construction of the plant, called Kusile. A yes vote would increase South Africa’s debt burden, contribute to climate catastrophe, endanger local health, and produce power for South Africa’s multinational corporations at the expense of the poor. 

At 4,800 megawatts, the behemoth Kusile will have serious ramifications on South Africa’s poor and the global environment.  In South Africa, the plant will require 2,470 acres of land to house its toxic coal ash dump, siphon away 1 billion gallons of water annually, and will displace 300 local residents. On a global scale, the plant will dump 36.8 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year increase South Africa’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions by 9.7%.

When I lived in Durban, on the east coast of South Africa, I saw the impact similar industrial and energy plants outside the city had on local residents’ health.  The South Africans most affected were mostly non-white and had been pushed out of the city center during Apartheid – today’s South Durban community live next to an industrial center with paper plants, hazardous waste landfills, oil tankers, and mineral refineries.

With the building of the Kusile power plant, the poor of South Africa will have yet another strike against their health. For the poor around the plant, sulphur and nitrogen oxide pollution in the air will lead to respiratory disease such as asthma and emphysema while heavy metals and toxins in coal ash will cause cancer and neurological and development disorders: all this, without even the benefit of gaining increased access to basic energy services like electricity. 

Multinational corporations in South Africa still access subsidized power from Eskom under Apartheid-era agreements, while the citizens of South Africa must pay higher rates for electricity to make up the difference. The largest 38 corporations in South Africa use 40% of the electricity grid, while the poor access only 5%. In the Durban township where I lived, there were often electrical blackouts in my low-income neighborhood.  My family was unable to pay the electric bills that would provide us with light whenever we wished – instead we had to choose when to use electricity and when to sit in the dark.  Thanks to preferential pricing for corporations, Kusile’s construction will increase prices for the poor – not lessen energy poverty.

As South Africa becomes a heavy-weight in the international economy, funders like Ex-Im and the World Bank, alongside the country’s government must take responsibility for decisions that not only harm South Africa’s poor, but will also cause the poor to suffer from climate change around the world. 

International Financial Institutions and local governments must turn their ship around and invest in renewable energy development to stop harming public health and causing climate catastrophe and start creating jobs and electricity to reach the poorest.  The international community and the South African Government have to stop putting the profits of multinational corporations ahead of the interests of their own poor and those abroad affected by climate change. 

The United States Ex-Im Bank should vote against lending resources to South African company Eskom to build Kusile.  This act would send a strong message to the international community that we take climate change and its harmful effects on the poor seriously.

On Thursday, January 13 Jubilee activists turned out to urge Ex-Im to vote no on Kusile during a protest with partner organizations Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club, groundWork/Friends of the Earth South Africa and others.  To take action you can write or call the Ex-Im Bank here and ask them to vote no on dirty coal for South Africa.  

Comments

[Mary Brady]

Export-Import Bank, please vote NO on the coal-fired plant for South Africa. It would endanger the health of the local residents, cause climate catrasrophe, increase the debt with which SA is already burdened, deprive the poor of natural resources some of which they already lack.
Please help them and yourselves to take leadership in this decision for the good of the people who live there and can use our help and strong spport. VOTE NO, please.