Question NW2494 to the Minister of Energy
25 November 2016 - NW2494
Dlamini, Mr MM to ask the Minister of Energy
What programmes or initiatives has her department put in place to educate rural and poor communities about the importance of energy efficiency?
Reply:
To educate the public about the importance of energy efficiency, the Department developed and launched the Energy Efficiency Campaign Strategy during the United Nations Convention on Climate Change’s 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) held in Durban in 2011. In addition, on 13 March 2015, the President of South Africa launched the Presidency and Government energy savings campaign highlighting various initiatives the government will implement to promote energy savings, and these include the green building policy framework, minimum energy performance standards and labeling of energy efficiency appliances, improvement of energy efficiency, and, importantly, the installation of solar panels and solar water heaters in buildings including in residential buildings in rural and poor communities.
Furthermore, on 17 May 2016, the Minister of Energy unveiled the South African Energy Efficiency Label, and also announced measures to be implemented in buildings as part of promoting energy savings. The SA Energy Efficiency Label has been designed to provide the South African consumers, including poor and rural communities, with accurate and comparable information that enables an informed purchase decisions when buying household appliances. The advantage to consumers, especially poor and rural communities, is that they have an opportunity to play an active role both in achieving savings on electricity consumption and in making a meaningful contribution to the effort on reducing carbon emissions.
Some of the energy savings measures being implemented by the Department include the installation of smart metering and clean energy technologies in schools and government buildings, deployment of co-generation in municipal waste water treatment facilities, and the installation of energy efficient technologies related to municipal infrastructure. It should also be noted that the Ministry of Energy has been conducting outreach programmes to poor and rural communities as part of the energy savings campaign.