Eskom Wins South African Appeal to Keep Five Polluting Power Plants Open
- Minister says plants exempt from incoming emission limits
- Country has one of the world’s most carbon-intensive economies
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South Africa’s state power utility and biggest source of air pollution won an appeal to keep five of its oldest plants open even though they are set to flout incoming emission caps.
The plants - which account for almost a quarter of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s almost 45 gigawatts of coal-fired generation capacity - will be allowed to operate under current emission limits until the end of March 2030, Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s environment minister, ruled. That will exempt them from more stringent restrictions on pollutants, ranging from particulate emissions to sulfur dioxide, that come into effect in 2025.