The Transnational Centre for Just Energy Transitions in Energy, Climate and Sustainability at UCT would like to invite you to our dialogue titled " Paradoxes: The High Demand for Coal Exports and Emerging Just Energy Transitions Investment.

Following the encoding of the Paris Agreement, coal has been under increased scrutiny. Eliminating coal from the global energy mix has been a top priority for governments, in an effort to meet climate targets. The ‘end of coal’ has signalled the need to transition away from fossil-fulled energy systems to energy systems that prioritise equity, justice and more climate-conscious energy resources. However, a “talk renewables, walk coal” (Roy & Schaffartzik 2021) rhetoric has overtaken just transition discussions. Coal industries continue to flourish, with the fossil fuel resource remaining a central feature in the political economy agendas of states like South Africa, Colombia and much of the industrialising world. A global coordination to phase-out coal has slowed down with global coal exports increasing as a response to the declining energy security. Countries like South Africa have capitalised on this, with coal exports to the European Union (EU) growing up to 587% in 2022 due to an increase in coal consumption levels.

Please join our panel on June 20, 2023 to unpack the paradoxes of just transitions in a coal dependent world.

Please see the poster on the right for more information and RSVP by the 10th of June 2023.