{"id":1433,"date":"2018-05-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/uncategorized\/1433\/an-irrational-irp-can-expect-legal-challenge-from-human-rights-organisations\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T08:22:35","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:22:35","slug":"an-irrational-irp-can-expect-legal-challenge-from-human-rights-organisations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/1433\/an-irrational-irp-can-expect-legal-challenge-from-human-rights-organisations\/","title":{"rendered":"An irrational IRP can expect legal challenge from human rights organisations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"leader\">17 May 2018 \u2013 The Life After Coal (LAC) Campaign and Greenpeace Africa say that the Department of Energy (DoE) will face a legal challenge from them if the Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (IRP) ignores constitutional obligations.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe are not afraid to take the Department of Energy to court if the updated IRP ignores the provisions made in the Constitution. We were successful in halting the nuclear deal and we will fight again if necessary,\u201d says Earthlife Africa Director, Makoma Lekalakala.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>A legal challenge would be a severe blow to a department that has seen four ministers in under a year, and could face another reshuffle before the 2019 elections. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last week that the IRP will be released in August after a brief public participation process.<\/div>\n<div>\nThe Life After Coal Campaign and Greenpeace Africa believe that human rights \u2013 specifically the right to a healthy environment and to water \u2013 are as important as economic cost when planning South Africa\u2019s energy future. For this reason, the IRP must take into account all of the external costs associated with the different technologies included in the IRP.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThere is no question that new-build solar and wind energy are cheaper than coal. We also need to take into account the cost of coal\u2019s impacts to human health, water, climate, and the environment. Even if the updated IRP guarantees the cheapest electricity, if it ignores the costs of each energy source, it will be in violation of the Constitution,\u201d says Robyn Hugo, Head of the Pollution and Climate Change Programme at the Centre for Environmental Rights.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>Melita Steele, Senior Climate and Energy Campaign Manager at Greenpeace Africa, says that a rational and lawful IRP is crucial to setting South Africa on the right path towards a just and fair energy transition. \u201cUrgent measures are needed to ensure that the IRP is in the best interests of all South Africans and we are prepared to take these measures, even if it means going to court,\u201d she says.<br \/>\nLife After Coal is made up of the Centre for Environmental Rights, groundWork, and Earthlife Africa.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Media contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>makoma@earthlife.org.za<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!-- document.write(dc('Eoi_1', 'FB_C5_9A_D4_C7_9A_97_9A_90_9A_97_9A_90_9E_B7_DB_9A_96_94_90_9A_B6_C5_D9_9A_81_D5_9C_89_94_D5_9E_9D_92_97_93_8F_89_9A_9E_BB_9A_96_94_90_9A_96_C1_94_8F_97_92_9A_96_D9_C6_9D_9E_89_93_DB_9A_C7'));\/\/--><\/script>;\u00a0Director, Earthlife Africa;\u00a0082 682 9177<\/p>\n<p>melita.steele@greenpeace.org<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!-- document.write(dc('Eoi_2', '54_6A_35_7B_68_31_38_31_31_20_07_74_35_20_3D_38_31_19_6A_76_33_26_3B_7A_31_37_35_31_24_3A_31_31_26_33_14_31_38_31_31_20_27_7A_35_20_3D_38_31_39_6E_3B_20_38_3D_35_39_76_69_32_31_26_3C_74_35_68'));\/\/--><\/script>;\u00a0Senior Climate and Energy Campaign Manager, Greenpeace Africa;\u00a0072 560 8703<\/p>\n<p>agibbs@cer.org.za<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!-- document.write(dc('Eoi_3', '95_AB_F4_BA_A9_E6_F7_F7_FC_D2_B5_F0_E1_E1_F0_FB_FB_D4_AB_B7_F4_EF_BB_F2_E7_FA_BB_E7_F0_F6_D5_E6_F7_F7_FC_F2_F4_AF_FA_E1_F9_FC_F4_F8_B7_A8_F3_F0_E7_FD_B5_F4_A9'));\/\/--><\/script>;\u00a0Communications Manager, Centre for Environmental Rights;\u00a0082 467 1295<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div>\n\t17 May 2018 &#8211; The Life After Coal (LAC) Campaign and Greenpeace Africa say that the Department of Energy (DoE) will face a legal challenge from them if the Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (IRP) ignores constitutional obligations.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[65,26],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-1433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-southafrica","tag-energy","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4335,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions\/4335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}