Earthlife Africa Johannesburg (ELA), represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), yesterday submitted comments on the draft climate change impact assessment for the Thabametsi power station, ahead of SA's first climate change lawsuit to start in the Pretoria High Court this week.
The impact assessment was made available for public comment in January 2017 following the Minister of Environmental Affairs’ decision to order Thabametsi coal-fired power station to conduct an assessment of the climate change impact of the proposed coal-fired power station in water-stressed Limpopo.
At the same time, the Minister decided to uphold the proposed power station’s environmental authorisation – a decision which ELA will be challenging in court from Thursday.
ELA’s case is based on the fact that climate change impact is a significant environmental impact, given the impact that climate change will have and is having on water availability and temperature increases, particularly in respect of a proposed coal-fired power station.