{"id":60465,"date":"2026-04-22T10:38:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=60465"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:44:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:44:53","slug":"unmasked-the-health-and-economic-cost-of-delaying-coal-phase-out-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/publications\/60465\/unmasked-the-health-and-economic-cost-of-delaying-coal-phase-out-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Unmasked: The health and economic cost of delaying coal phase-out in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"crea-report-actions\" style=\"font-family:'Arial Black',Impact,'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;max-width:880px;margin:0 auto;padding:48px 32px;background:#ffd600;border-radius:12px;text-align:center;\">\n\n  <p style=\"font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;letter-spacing:3px;text-transform:uppercase;color:#555;margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;\">Spread the 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Black',Impact,sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-weight:900;cursor:pointer;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:1px;transition:opacity 0.2s;\" onmouseover=\"this.style.opacity='0.85'\" onmouseout=\"this.style.opacity='1'\">\n      <svg width=\"22\" height=\"22\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#ffd600\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\"><circle cx=\"18\" cy=\"5\" r=\"3\"\/><circle cx=\"6\" cy=\"12\" r=\"3\"\/><circle cx=\"18\" cy=\"19\" r=\"3\"\/><line x1=\"8.59\" y1=\"13.51\" x2=\"15.42\" y2=\"17.49\"\/><line x1=\"15.41\" y1=\"6.51\" x2=\"8.59\" y2=\"10.49\"\/><\/svg>\n      Share This Report\n    <\/button>\n  <\/div>\n\n<script>\n(function(){\n  var shareTitle = 'The Hidden Price of Keeping Coal Alive';\n  var shareText = 'South Africa\\'s coal extension will cause 32,000 additional deaths, 37,000 preterm births, 14,000 new cases of childhood asthma, and USD 38 billion in health damages by 2050. Read the CREA & Greenpeace Africa report.';\n  var shareUrl = window.location.href;\n\n  var isMobile = \/Android|iPhone|iPad|iPod\/i.test(navigator.userAgent) && navigator.share;\n  var desktop = document.getElementById('crea-actions-desktop');\n  var mobile = document.getElementById('crea-actions-mobile');\n\n  if(isMobile){\n    desktop.style.display = 'none';\n    mobile.style.display = 'block';\n  }\n\n  var encoded = encodeURIComponent(shareUrl);\n  var encodedText = encodeURIComponent(shareText + ' ' + shareUrl);\n\n  document.getElementById('crea-btn-linkedin').href = 'https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=' + encoded;\n  document.getElementById('crea-btn-facebook').href = 'https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=' + encoded;\n  document.getElementById('crea-btn-x').href = 'https:\/\/x.com\/intent\/post?text=' + encodedText;\n  document.getElementById('crea-btn-bluesky').href = 'https:\/\/bsky.app\/intent\/compose?text=' + encodedText;\n  document.getElementById('crea-btn-whatsapp').href = 'https:\/\/api.whatsapp.com\/send?text=' + encodedText;\n\n  window.creaNativeAction = function(){\n    navigator.share({\n      title: shareTitle,\n      text: shareText,\n      url: shareUrl\n    }).catch(function(){});\n  };\n})();\n<\/script>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<style>\n.share-buttons {\n\n display:none;\n\n}\n\n<\/style>\n\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s government is choosing to keep coal plants running for a decade longer, and the hidden price is 32,000 additional deaths, 37,000 preterm births, and USD 38 billion in health damages that will fall hardest on children and communities who never lit a single coal furnace.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>The 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) extends the operating lifetimes of coal-fired power plants well beyond Eskom&#8217;s own 2022 decommissioning schedule &#8211; in some cases by at least 10 additional years. This decision carries a devastating hidden cost. Gauteng,&nbsp; which hosts no Eskom coal plants, emerges as the worst-affected province because fine particulate matter travels hundreds of kilometres across provincial boundaries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>About the report<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>This new research by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Greenpeace Africa estimates that the delay will result in approximately 32,000 additional premature deaths between 2026 and 2050, 37,000 preventable preterm births, 14,000 new cases of childhood asthma, and USD 38 billion (721 billion ZAR) in cumulative health-related economic damages.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns has-action-yellow-500-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless-develop\/2026\/04\/6db970ed-cover-greenpeace-report-unmasked-coal-phase-out-in-sa.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-58530\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">REPORT<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Unmasked: The health and economic cost of delaying coal phase-out in South Africa<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-africa-stateless\/2026\/04\/cc46daab-greenpeace-report-unmasked-coal-phase-out-in-sa.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DOWNLOAD HERE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s government is choosing to keep coal plants running for a decade longer, and the hidden price is 32,000 additional deaths, 37,000 preterm births, and USD 38 billion in health damages that will fall hardest on children and communities who never lit a single coal furnace.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":60466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[46,136,65],"p4-page-type":[45],"class_list":["post-60465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-greenpeaceafrica","tag-air-pollution","tag-southafrica","p4-page-type-publications"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60465","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\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60465"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60472,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60465\/revisions\/60472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60465"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=60465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}