Honourable Minister, South Africa and the world are at an extremely critical juncture concerning the choices that need to be made with regards to energy. On the one hand the world is fast approaching the point of peak oil, which some commentators claim is reflected through the steep increases in the oil price.

Regardless of how far off that peak oil point is though, it is clear that oil is a finite resource that is fast running out. As the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom stated last week, coal is also a finite resource and although South Africa has large reserves we have to start planning for alternative energy sources.

One of the biggest motivators for moving away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal, however, is the urgent need to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change. Einstein once said we cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

In order to solve our energy security problem and to mitigate the effects of climate change we need to embrace a new, innovative approach to energy.

Unfortunately, Honourable Minister, the ID believes that South Africa is fast losing the opportunity to play a leading role in confronting not only our own energy challenges, but those of the world as a whole. Renewable energy is quite simply the wave of the future and we need to start putting our money, our research and our legislative capabilities behind it.

The entire portfolio committee was shocked a few months ago to see how little resources are currently dedicated to the development of renewable energies. Despite constant promises over the last five years, the renewable energy strategy has to date not materialised. We urgently need this strategy to put forward measures such as feed-in tariffs, which can enable our energy entrepreneurs to create viable renewable energy enterprises in South Africa.

Instead of promoting technologies such as wind, solar and wave we now hear that 75% of our already small renewable energy target will be met by biofuels. Biofuels certainly have a role to play in the energy mix, but they are also problematic in a number of ways. Sangoco has already called for a moratorium on maize to ethanol as this could adversely affect food security and it offers no greenhouse gas mitigation benefits.

On the other side of the coin, the mandatory standards of our energy efficiency strategy, which was gazetted in 2005, have still not been implemented and the National Energy Efficiency Agency that was launched last year has no funds and is only staffed by one person, who has been seconded from Eskom. Minister, we need to start getting serious about renewable energy and energy efficiency if we are going to have any hope of bringing down our sizable greenhouse gas emissions.

The choices over our future energy security options are complex and the decisions that we make today will lock us into an energy future for the next thirty years. It is therefore vital that we make these choices in an informed and participatory manner.

I therefore ask you Minister, when we are going to have the much-needed energy summit that you promised this committee last year. The Integrated Energy Planning Process has also been stalled because of a lack of donor funding for the externalities study. We should not have to depend on donor funding for this and money should have been set aside for this study by the department, as it is crucial in informing our decisions around future energy supply. This study, for instance, will be able to answer questions as to whether it is wise to be selling large amounts of energy to Alcan at hugely discounted rates, given the supply and emission problems that our country is experiencing.

Minister, I have a vision of South Africa leading the world in the coming renewable energy revolution, but it will require foresight and bold moves on the part of the government. The time has come for us to firmly commit ourselves to this vision before we get left behind by a fast-changing world.

 

I thank you.