Can South Africa quit its deadly coal habit?

An influential South African government agency has recommended the country phase out coal-fired power stations as it published a 10-year study which found that people living near them were 6% more likely to die than their peers elsewhere.

South African officials and citizens are debating whether and how fast the country should embark on a partly donor-funded programme to switch to sun and wind energy from coal. The fossil fuel provides three-quarters of national power and employs 90 000 people in jobs unions are fighting hard to protect.

The report by the South African Medical Research Council and Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) collected nearly three million death certificates from 1997 to 2018 and compared them with air quality data nationwide.

Coal provides three-quarters of national power and employs 90 000 people in jobs unions are fighting to protect

It found higher birth defects and higher death rates among all ages in communities adjacent to the power stations — especially from cardiovascular and lung disease.

“Some recommendations are … that power stations could be decommissioned,” co-author Caradee Wright said, presenting the report’s findings in Pretoria. “We realise … that’s not going to happen immediately. But … [coal-fired power] does have such a negative impact on human health.”

Wright also called for more stringent enforcement of harmful emissions limits in South Africa’s coal belt, home to some 3.6 million people.

Read: Eskom pollution kills 330 people a year, company says

The ANC-led government, which is divided over the future of the country’s coal-fired power plants, often grants waivers from the limits to state-owned power utility Eskom and coal-to-liquid fuel producer Sasol. — (c) 2025 Reuters

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