An assessment of South Africa's coal mining sector response to climate change adaptation demands

Abstract

Climate change adaptation has received limited attention compared to mitigation across all spatial levels. This is besides the documented adverse impacts of climate change in different sectors of societies including mining in general and coal mining specifically. Against this background, the study set three objectives. The first objective was to identify current and possible future climate change impacts that may affect selected coal mines in South Africa. The second objective was to establish the nature and extent to which these mines were ready to address and implement adaptation measures. The last objective was to determine and document existing climate change adaptation practices in selected mines. Employing the mixed methods approach, the research engaged five coal mines located in Mpumalanga, Free State and Kwa Zulu-Natal, gathering both the qualitative and quantitative data. This data was analysed thematically. The research made three major findings. The first finding was that the climatic conditions in the research areas have been changing over the observed period. In general, rainfall has been declining and temperatures have been increasing, leading to increased cases of extreme fog, mist and heatwaves. The second finding was that there has been an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, most notably, floods and droughts. These changes in the climate and associated weather events have frequently affected mine operations particularly at the production sub-chain of the coal mining value chain. The third major finding was that despite this evidence of adverse impact of climate change on the production sub-chain of the South African coal mining value chain, adaption responses in all the studied mines showed reactive adaptation to extreme events instead of proactive adaptation planning and implementation. South Africa depends on coal-derived energy, electricity in particular and the coal mines are implicitly exposed and vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Reducing this exposure and vulnerability dictates the urgent need to implement anticipatory adaptation measures in all the sub-chains of the coal mining value chain.