South Africa could replace coal and power-plant jobs by investing in citrus and marijuana plantations to produce hemp in its coal belt as the nation, the world’s 15th-biggest producer of greenhouse gases, tries to wean itself off dependency on the dirtiest fossil fuel, a study showed.
The eastern Mpumalanga province, which accounts for 87% of the South Africa’s coal production and the bulk of its power generation, could also focus on producing aviation fuel from sugarcane and boosting income from tourism, the Presidential Climate Commission said in the study.
As coal mines and power plants close in the province, which has an unemployment rate of 38%, as many as 24,000 jobs could be lost by 2030, the researchers wrote in the study.
“Against a backdrop of low growth and high employment, the energy transition away from coal has the potential to deepen existing socio-economic challenges,” the researchers said.
South Africa and the Mpumalanga province are in focus as an $8.8 billion climate finance pact with some of the world’s richest nations — known as the Just Energy Transition Partnership — serves as a prototype for similar projects tin Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal.
Key to those deals is how coal-dependent communities will be shielded from the impact of the transition.
The cabinet approved a so-called Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan last year and of the $756 million of pledged grant funding for that, 26% will go to projects in Mpumalanga to support of the shift from coal dependence.
The new industries may provide as many as 95,000 jobs should they attract investment, the researchers said.
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