Green economic diversification will safeguard our transition

ACCELERATING the shift to a clean economy will unleash new opportunities in renewable energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure.

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But what will happen to the workers, families, and communities dependent on fossil fuels as a key economic driver? How will they be protected and prepared?

Mpumalanga has for a century been economically locked into mining value chains, with local infrastructure, supply networks, and livelihoods intricately tied to the sector.

As we transition away from coal, a resource that has long powered our economy but contributed to some of the sustainability and social inequities we must minimise socioeconomic instability and usher equitable, inclusive, and transformed regional economy.

Although the fossil fuel workforce is expected to decline, the introduction of low-carbon technologies would create manufacturing and construction jobs.

However, the local impacts of such transitions are sensitive to political, industrial, and technological factors.

No Room for delayism - we must adapt

Economic diversification is the cornerstone of Mpumalanga’s survival and essential for ensuring economic resilience, social equity, and environmental sustainability in the midst of a full -throttle energy transition.

The implications of this are profound: without deliberate economic diversification efforts, communities dependent on coal face further unemployment, economic decline, and poverty increase.

To the people of Emalahleni - the place of coal, the advent of an energy transition and the uncertainty of diversification is extremely unsettling.