Drilling machine borer installing cast explosives blasting. Open coal mine.
The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, this week heard a legal challenge against the government’s plans to develop 1500 megawatts of new coal-fired electricity generation, which environmental bodies say will be harmful to all.
The youth-led Cancel Coal case is a landmark climate constitutional challenge brought by the African Climate Alliance, the Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action, and groundWork, Friends of the Earth SA, represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights.
The applicants argue that the government’s plan to build new coal plants threatens several constitutional rights, including the right to an environment not harmful to the health and well-being of present and future generations, as well as the rights to life, dignity, equality, and the best interests of the child.
The Cancel Coal court case is South Africa’s first youth-led climate change case that challenges the government’s decision to procure 1500 MW of new coal-fired power despite the climate change impacts of burning coal, which threaten the constitutional rights of present and future generations in South Africa.
It highlights the particular risk climate harms pose to children, young people, and future generations in South Africa. The impacts of the inclusion of new coal-fired power will be experienced disproportionately by children and future generations, who will live with the consequences for decades to come, the court was told on Wednesday.
The applicants further highlighted that the Constitution places a particular obligation to consider the best interest of children and to assess the interests of future generations.
The applicants said expert evidence submitted in support of the case demonstrates that South Africa does not need additional coal power to meet its electricity demands. Renewable energy alternatives, which are not only less harmful but also more cost-effective, can adequately meet the country’s energy needs.
The Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria, meanwhile, entered the proceedings as a friend of the court. It also called on the court to interrupt a process that it says has the potential to set an entire generation up for failure.
The Centre argued that the present and future generations of children will disproportionately suffer the consequences of the decisions made by the government, as they are the ones who will have to face the brunt.
“The case is brought by children and youth, who act in their own interests, as well as children as a group, and in the interests of future generations, giving effect to their right to be heard in all matters which affect them, including judicial and political matters,” the Centre argued.
It added that the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, as well as the National Energy Regulator, failed to comply with constitutional and statutory obligations to children in their decision to introduce the new coal-fired power to generate 1500 MW of electricity.
It said a range of children’s constitutional rights are impacted by these decisions, which include the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being.
The Minister contends that his decision has not violated any constitutional rights and that the backbone of the applicant’s case is that if implemented, the inclusion of new coal-fired power will threaten human health and well-being.
It is on this basis that the first respondent submits that his decisions should not be declared unconstitutional or reviewed. He argued in this regard that the state has fulfilled its constitutional duty towards the environment by putting legislation in place to ensure the protection of the environment and the ecosystem.
According to the Minister’s argument, domestic law and relevant international instruments do not require zero carbon emissions, but a reduction thereof. The decision to include the 1500 MW of coal-fired power is thus rationally connected to the purpose of the law, it was argued in opposition to the application.
The Centre for Child Law, meanwhile, said the government is statutorily and constitutionally duty-bound to ensure that their actions do not constitute a threat to constitutionally protected and internationally recognised rights of children.
This includes children’s environmental rights, especially given the irrefutable dangers of harmful carbon emissions as a result of new coal-fired power stations.
Pretoria News
zelda.venter@inl.co.za