Legislative changes to enable renewable energy development and build capacity in Impact Assessment in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa is currently facing an energy crisis with load shedding being implemented regularly by the national electricity public utility. To secure energy and as part of international climate change commitments, South Africa has implemented several policy and legislation amendments to remove environmental permitting blockages and streamline the application process for the development of renewable energy projects. These legislative changes are linked to several Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA), commissioned by the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, aimed at identifying areas where large scale renewable energy can be deployed with limited impacts on the environment. The legislative changes include the gazetting of geographical areas dedicated for large scale renewable energy and electricity transmission lines, a reduction of decision-making timeframes linked to the gazetted geographical areas, the mandatory implementation of a national GIS based Screening Tool and the gazetting of several protocols for the assessment and the reporting of impacts during the EIA process. This paper reviews the outcomes of the SEAs to provide the current legislative landscape linked to environmental authorisations for renewable energy projects and the rationale that has got us here. In addition, as these changes impact the competent authorities that are responsible for environmental authorisations, it essential that these authorities are equippedto do so in a sustainable manner. The paper identifies guidelines that are linked to the legislative changes.