Batteries not included

--:--

Gas is minerals and energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s New Big Thing. He can barely contain his irritation with the renewable energy lobby as it racks up legal successes against fossil fuel exploration offshore. We should, he told and energy symposium last week, avoid becoming “an island of angels” on the question of energy and fossil fuels. Listen though to senior UCT researcher Jesse Burton as she guides Peter Bruce through the risks associated with using gas as a transitional fuel as we move from coal to renewables by 2050 of before. The National Business Initiative has just produced a seminal document and proposals for a gas-based transition and the time for making decisions is tight. For gas power in 2035, a call would have to be made next year. Burton warns though that that new gas investments could quickly become “stranded assets” as technology runs away with the energy solution. Now is the time for cool heads.

28 Feb 2022 English South Africa News Commentary · Politics Peter Bruce

Other recent episodes

The Power of One Tough Zulu

In 2020 young Mbali Ntuli took on the might of the Democratic Alliance establishment and ran for the leadership of the party against John Steenhuisen. Not unexpectedly, she lost and not long afterwards branched out on her own — not, like many of the black leaders who left the DA…

24 Apr 38 min

South Africa is a black country now

The ANC will win the forthcoming elections, the DA will come second and the EFF third, former ANC exile intelligence leader Oyama Mabandla tells Peter Bruce in this edition of Podcasts from the Edge. “Even if the ANC misfires,” he says, “there is still no alternative to it. In South…

17 Apr 46 min

Is that column doric or iconic?

Peter Bruce talks about being a columnist in this latest edition of Podcasts from the Edge. He approves of the notion that while columnists are nominally journalists they are driven by their own opinions and a powerful drive to grab the attention of their audience. Citing London Times columnist Matthew…

10 Apr 19 min

When business stops trying

Most of the import tariffs protecting South African companies in their home market have been in place for more than 20 years, trade expert Donald Mackay tells Peter Bruce in this episode of Podcasts from the Edge. That implies that in two decades the protected companies still have not become…

13 Mar 39 min

Time to step on the gas?

On July 1 2026, just more than 28 months from now, a vast swathe of South African industry — from manufacturers of car windscreens, beer bottles, industrial powders and even bakeries — will grind to a sudden stop unless the government rapidly intervenes to encourage the construction in Mozambique of…

27 Feb 51 min

All episodes