An assessment of South Africa's coal mining sector response to climate change adaptation demands
Climate change adaptation has received limited attention compared to mitigation across all spatial levels. This is besides the documented adverse impacts of climate change in different sectors of societies including mining in general and coal mining specifically. Against this background, the stud...
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | en |
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2017
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| Online Access: | Chavalala, Bongani (2016) Assessment of South Africa's coal mining sector response to climate change adaptation demands, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22834> http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22834 |
| Summary: | Climate change adaptation has received limited attention compared to mitigation across all
spatial levels. This is besides the documented adverse impacts of climate change in different
sectors of societies including mining in general and coal mining specifically. Against this
background, the study set three objectives. The first objective was to identify current and
possible future climate change impacts that may affect selected coal mines in South Africa.
The second objective was to establish the nature and extent to which these mines were ready
to address and implement adaptation measures. The last objective was to determine and
document existing climate change adaptation practices in selected mines. Employing the
mixed methods approach, the research engaged five coal mines located in Mpumalanga, Free
State and Kwa Zulu-Natal, gathering both the qualitative and quantitative data. This data was
analysed thematically. The research made three major findings.
The first finding was that the
climatic conditions in the research areas have been changing over the observed period. In
general, rainfall has been declining and temperatures have been increasing, leading to
increased cases of extreme fog, mist and heatwaves. The second finding was that there has
been an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, most notably, floods
and droughts. These changes in the climate and associated weather events have frequently
affected mine operations particularly at the production sub-chain of the coal mining value
chain. The third major finding was that despite this evidence of adverse impact of climate
change on the production sub-chain of the South African coal mining value chain, adaption
responses in all the studied mines showed reactive adaptation to extreme events instead of
proactive adaptation planning and implementation. South Africa depends on coal-derived
energy, electricity in particular and the coal mines are implicitly exposed and vulnerable to
the adverse impacts of climate change. Reducing this exposure and vulnerability dictates the
urgent need to implement anticipatory adaptation measures in all the sub-chains of the coal
mining value chain. === Environmental Sciences === D. Litt. et Phil (Environmental management) |
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