Western Cape to mainstream sustainability
Sustainability is the key to provincial government's 10 strategic plans developed as a "road map" for its five-year term of office, according to Premier Helen Zille. "We have to really try and achieve these (environmental) targets, because all our other plans depend on sustainability and optimising resource-use efficiency," she said at the recent release of the provincial plan.
Most notable is the objective for 15 percent of all electricity used in the Western Cape to be generated from renewable energy sources by 2014. Very little renewable electricity is currently produced, although the Darling Wind Farm delivers 5.2 MW of 'green' electricity and a number of other wind power projects are in the pipeline. The provincial electricity usage is around 4200 MW, so 630 MW capacity of renewable energy capacity will be required.
The Province also aims to reduce electricity in selected provincial buildings, including schools and hospitals, by 5 to 10% and to reduce the gross Provincial Product to Carbon Emission ratio by 10%.
Local Government, Development Planning and Environmental Affairs MEC Anton Bredell, whose department will lead the implementation of the plan, which will also involve other sectors of the administration, said rapid development and "resource-use inefficiencies" were causing extensive environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and a decline in agricultural production, and that climate change will exacerbate this situation.
"We have placed an enormous burden on the environment that sustains us. Everything is now at risk: the long-term growth prospects of our economy and the jobs that must be created, the food supply we rely on and our very quality of life," he said.
"There is no choice in the matter - we must become more sustainable."
The plan entitled "Mainstreaming Sustainability and Optimising Resource-use Efficiency" includes the following priority areas: climate change, water management, pollution and waste management, biodiversity management, agricultural land use management and the built environment.
Additional targets in the plan include:
Improving agricultural, industrial, commercial and household water use efficiency by 5 to 10% by 2014.
Increasing the percentage of waste diverted from landfills to 15% by 2014.
Increasing the number of conservation sites from 50 to 78 by 2012.
Rehabilitating 40 000ha per annum of land infested with alien vegetation.
Achieving a 5% improvement in conservation farming practices by 2014.
Sources: Cape Gateway, Western Cape Sustainable Energy Policy, Cape Argus
