By: Chris Ahlfeldt

US President Donald Trump’s executive order to repeal former President Barrack Obama’s environmental policies without offering an alternative for how the US will address climate change shows poor leadership and a lack of long-term vision. The executive order will not bring back the coal industry, as promised, as coal-fired power generation not only produces harmful emissions but is also now more costly than natural gas and renewable resources in most parts of the world.

Rather than trying to prop up a dirty and increasingly uncompetitive legacy industry, policymakers should help displaced coal workers find jobs in new and growing industries, such as the clean energy industry, which has proved that it can drive rapid economic growth and create jobs. For example, in 2016, the US solar industry created economic activity valued at $154-billion, while jobs grew 12 times as fast as the country’s economy. As of the end of last year, the US employed 374 000 people in the solar power generation sector, which now employs more people than coal, whose total workforce is 160 000, and natural gas, which currently employs 362 000, according to the US Department of Energy. These numbers also highlight how many more jobs have been created in the solar industry, despite a much lower installed capacity than both coal and natural gas.

South Africa is also experiencing a decline in the coal industry and a backlash by some groups vested in the sector. The National Union of Mineworkers, for example, has been protesting against State-owned power utility Eskom’s plan to phase out ageing and expensive coal power plants.

While Eskom’s plan will likely result in some job losses in the short term, there will be a net increase in jobs for the country, with the increase to take place in the clean energy sector, as independent power producers (IPPs) scale up operations by hiring more local employees and energy service companies hire more installers for commercial- and residential-scale projects.

Since IPPs have demonstrated that they can build new projects more cheaply than Eskom, increasing the number of IPPs and encouraging more efficiency within the utility will ultimately bring down the average cost of electricity for consumers, further spurring on economic development. An effective role for government here is to incentivise businesses and workers to prepare for these changes and assist displaced workers in accessing the training they need to transition to new jobs.

The US government’s recent lapse in leadership on clean energy creates an opportunity for its cities and states, and other countries that innovate and adapt to the global demand for cleaner energy technologies. China, for example, recently put the development of roughly 100 new coal projects on hold and more than doubled its solar photovoltaic installed capacity to 77GW in 2016.

The Chinese are doing this partly to meet climate commitments, but primarily because it makes economic sense, given the drop in technology costs and the opportunity to lead in this growing industry.

Namibia recently set itself an ambitious target of 70% renewable energy by 2030, as it aspires to be a leader and a net exporter of clean energy in the Southern Africa region.

While we wait for consensus on climate change in the US at federal level, let us hope that others continue to move forward to take advantage of the economic and environmental benefits of the transition away from coal.

Ahlfeldt is an energy specialist and founder of Blue Horizon, which specialises in providing advisory services for the renewables and energy sector - chis@bluehorizon.energy