{"id":50227,"date":"2021-12-15T11:18:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T11:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=50227"},"modified":"2021-12-15T11:27:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T11:27:05","slug":"eskom-air-pollution-decision-south-africans-can-safely-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/press\/50227\/eskom-air-pollution-decision-south-africans-can-safely-breathe-a-sigh-of-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom air pollution decision: South Africans can safely breathe a sigh of relief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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TAKE ACTION NOW: CLEAN AIR<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Johannesburg, 15 December 2021 <\/strong>– Following the publication of the National Air Quality Officer\u2019s decision<\/a> on Eskom\u2019s far-ranging application for postponements from complying with air pollution limits (the \u2018Minimum Emission Standards\u2019), Greenpeace Africa\u2019s Climate and Energy Campaigner Thandile Chinyavanhu has said:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThanks to the National Air Quality Officer\u2019s decision to reject Eskom\u2019s application to postpone complying with air quality legislation, South Africans can safely breathe a sigh of relief. Greenpeace Africa has been actively campaigning since 2019<\/a> to stop Eskom from obtaining a licence to kill. This decision is a victory for all the people who have stood up with us to demand clean air, by making it clear that Eskom is not only failing to comply with already weak air quality rules, but has made minimal efforts to try to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhile Greenpeace Africa believes no postponements at all should have been given, the very limited postponements granted give a clear signal to Eskom that the utility is not above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Greenpeace activists block the entrance of Eskom’s Megawatt Park headquarters in Johannesburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

\u201cInstead of appealing<\/a> this decision, Eskom should be fast-tracking investments in renewable energy<\/a>. Greenpeace Africa maintains its position that if Eskom\u2019s decrepit, polluting coal-fired power stations can\u2019t comply with the law, they should be closed as early as possible in a Just Transition<\/a>, with investments shifted to renewable energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cCoal is a dangerous dead end. Renewable energy is more than able to quickly fill the gap, but we have no time to waste, and must begin to urgently scale up our investments in renewable energy and finalise social plans for the closure of the coal-fired power stations as part of the Just Transition\u201d ended Thandile Chinyavanhu.<\/p>\n\n

ENDS <\/p>\n\n

Contact details:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Tal Harris, International Communications Coordinator, Greenpeace Africa: tharris@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +221-785366270<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace Africa Newsdesk: nafrica@greenpeace.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

Thandile Chinyavanhu, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace Africa: tchinyav@greenpeace.org<\/a>, +27-82 614 2676<\/p>\n\n

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TAKE ACTION NOW: CLEAN AIR<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThanks to the National Air Quality Officer\u2019s decision to reject Eskom\u2019s application to postpone complying with air quality legislation, South Africans can safely breathe a sigh of relief.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":50228,"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":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33],"tags":[7,26,65],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-50227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-changemycommunity","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-coal","tag-energy","tag-southafrica","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50227","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\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50232,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50227\/revisions\/50232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50227"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=50227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}