European Commission VP Maroš Šefčovič plans to follow up his recent visit to South Africa with a firm proposal on how the European Union (EU) and South Africa could cooperate on clean-coal technology and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

In an interview with Engineering News Online Šefčovič, a Slovak diplomat who is currently overseeing climate action within the EU, revealed that the issue of cooperation on CCS and clean-coal had featured in discussions with South Africa’s Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.

Coal, he said, remained an important energy source for countries such as Poland, while the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany were also pursuing major research in the area of CCS.

“I think it would be very useful to have scientific and research cooperation [with South Africa] on these issues, because it is very important for the South African economy, but also for the economy of quite a few European member States.”

More than 90% of South Africa’s electricity production is currently derived from coal and energy and chemicals group Sasol also produces liquids fuels from coal at its Secunda complex, in Mpumalanga.

Following consultations with experts in Brussels, Šefčovič would draft a proposal on the possible areas of cooperation for consideration by the South African government.

He noted that the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan would be updated in September and that CCS was likely to feature more prominently than was the case previously.

In addition, an innovation fund being set up as part of revision to the EU emissions trading system could be used to support first-of-a-kind CCS investments.

“We will look what we can do together [with South Africa] and how we can cooperate on a scientific basis,” Šefčovič said, adding that he would also be requesting European experts to investigate whether the improvements already made to the environmental performance of European power plants could be shared more extensively with South Africa.