Young campaigners win landmark climate case to stop new coal power in South Africa

South Africa’s High Court has overturned government plans to add 1,500MW of new coal-fired power to the nation’s electricity grid.

In a landmark climate case, Judge Cornelius van der Westhuizen said that the plan was unlawful and invalid because the government failed to consider the potential impact on children’s rights.

The ‘Cancel Coal’ case was brought by three youth civil society organisations: the African Climate Alliance (ACA), the Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action (VEM), and the Groundwork Trust, represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER).

Launched three years ago, the case argued that the government’s energy policy violated several sections of the country’s constitution.

The burning of coal is one of the biggest contributors to climate change and has numerous health impacts from water and air pollution. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimates that coal-fired power stations kill more than 2,200 South Africans every year and cause thousands of cases of bronchitis and asthma in adults and children annually.

“We experience air pollution, water pollution and land pollution – everything is affected by the coal mines. The environment we’re living in is very destructive, so many people are sick,” says Mbali Mathebula, an environmental activist from VEM who lives in the Highveld, an inland region in northeast South Africa.

“Coal is affecting members of the community’s health and comfort, people are living with cancer and respiratory diseases and rely on oxygen and nebulisers just to survive. The Cancel Coal case is a last resort; we are saying there should be no new coal power, it is too destructive,”

South Africa is already the seventh biggest coal producer in the world,