- JOHANNESBURG: Greenpeace protesters have dumped five tons of coal at the headquarters of South Africa’s power utility to draw attention to their calls for the country to embrace clean energy.
Greenpeace’s Melita Steele said at Monday’s protest in Johannesburg that her environmental group wants South Africa to stop ongoing construction of a coal power station and “shift investment to renewal energy and energy efficiency.”
A spokeswoman for Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned electricity company, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
South Africa is the only African nation among the 20 countries that emit nearly 90 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Officials here have a long-term plan to reduce dependence on coal, but say that in the short term the country needs polluting technologies to develop.