Experts say mining sector has role in moving SA towards green energy

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Experts say to achieve green energy, the mining sector will have to play an important role. This is because the resources needed to produce clean energy will have to be sourced largely through the sector.

“It’s very important industry and it’s also an industry that takes this seriously and we deal with most of the mining companies globally and I think everyone has verification. I mean it’s all the equipment that you are using and also the power generation to power mining operations,” says Björn Rosengren, President and Chief Executive Office of ABB LTD.

According to the Global Risks Report 2022, the economic crisis due to COVID-19 may delay the efforts to tackle climate change. At the end of COP26 last year, at least 23 countries committed to phasing out coal power generation by 2050. While, also committing to scaling up clean power and ensuring a just transition away from coal. The issue is once again dominating discussions at this year’s virtual World Economic Forum.

“Today two thirds of the prime mineral energy in the world goes to waste that includes generation, transportation, industry and buildings. I think we need to re-think industrial production, we need to re-think transportation and the way we live in a sustainability angle,” Rosengren added.

Speaking during a panel discussion, Rosengren said improvement in energy features will drive more than forty percent in the reduction of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions over the next ten years.

“There are about 300 million electric motors today operating and only twenty percent of them are actually equipped with what we call the variable speed drive which make them more efficient, they using the last technology that are there so by actually improving, adding these drives to the rest of the motors worldwide, we would actually be able to save ten percent of the electricity in the world. So we’re talking huge numbers just to drive efficiency,” Rosengren explains.

The International Energy Agency says eighty percent of the emissions causing climate change comes from the energy sector.

“If we do not take the carbon out of the oil, gas and coal because the issue is today 80% of the emissions causing climate change comes from the energy sector, we have no chance whatsoever to fix our problem,” says Faith Birol, Executive Director of the  International Energy Agency.

The agency says for successful energy efficiency, the world has to invest about three trillion US dollars.

The role the mining sector can play in green energy:

 

 

7 months ago