SA’s resource-intensive economic trajectory unsustainable – NPC

"Balancing the potential benefits from further development of South Africa’s mineral and agricultural endowments with a less resource- and energy-intensive development path has been highlighted as a key future challenge for future deliberations by the nascent National Planning Commission (NPC).

In its ‘Diagnostics Overview’, released by NPC chairperson Minister Trevor Manuel and deputy chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa in Cape Town on Thursday, the NPC warns that the costs of such a transition would not “fall evenly” and export sectors could “suffer”.

Nevertheless, it describes the prevailing resource-intensive nature of the South African economy as “unsustainable”, while making it vulnerable to external forces that can induce local booms and busts. Further, it notes that the coal-heavy nature of the economy open it to penalties as the world seeks to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide." More here, on Engineering News