Cape Town

Sector: Municipal Government

Carbon Footprint:

> 21,000,000 metric tonnes CO₂e (2003)

TARGETS

> Reduce local authority electricity use 5% by 2010
> Reduce CO₂e emissions 10% by 2010
> Reduce private vehicle trips to city centre 10% by 2010
> 80% of energy from renewables and natural gas by 2050
> Install compact fluorescent lighting in 90% of households by 2010

Achievements

> Cleaner, safer, more reliable energy for low-income households
> Kuyasa community housing project is the first CDM Gold Standard project.

Benefits

> An energy retrofit of Khayelitsha housing will save R68 000 on energy costs, resulting from a reduction of 200 tonnes of CO₂e emissions yearly.

Low Carbon Solutions

Background

The City of Cape Town is the southernmost metropolitan area on the African continent. The local government is committed to developing a world-class African city, and establishing it as a leader in sustainable energy initiatives. This commitment, along with the support and seed funding that Cape Town has received from ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been critical drivers in getting the city to address its greenhouse gas emissions.

Cape Town, like many other developing cities, faces a range of challenges in its efforts to reduce emissions. Certain parts of the municipal area still do not have access to electricity, and meeting this basic need is an important priority for the city.

South Africa faces a power crunch in 2007 when demand for electricity is projected to exceed supply. In the long run demand side management may help the country avoid spending billions of dollars building additional generating capacity.

As part of Cape Town’s commitment to meeting its renewable target of 10% renewable energy supply by 2020 the City is finalising an agreement to purchase green electricity from the country’s first independent commercial wind farm – Darling Independent Power Producer (DarlIPP). DarlIPP should have 5.2 MW installed capacity by 2006.

Cape Town worked with ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection programme to complete an inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions, which informed many of the activities outlined above. In 2003, in partnership with Sustainable Energy Africa, Cape Town developed a draft Energy Strategy, which profiled energy use and outlined a series of goals for improving efficiency and achieving emissions reductions. In addition, this work identified a number of pilot projects for the city to undertake that would provide opportunities for cost savings and emissions reductions across a variety of sectors.

Craig Haskins, from Cape Town’s Environmental Management Department explains. “Our strategy has been to sell these projects on the cost savings side, the emissions and air pollution reductions are really secondary. In a developing country like South Africa, demonstrating cost savings is critical when presenting projects to councillors and senior decision-makers.”

In 2005, Cape Town’s strategy was formalised and the new Energy and Climate Change Strategy calls for improved energy efficiency, reduced fossil fuel dependence and significant reductions in CO₂ emissions by 2050.

Municipal buildings account for 16% of Cape Town’s total emissions. To reduce these emissions, in 2002, the Tygerberg Administration headquarters in the suburb of Parow underwent a pilot energy efficiency retrofit and employee awareness campaign. This has resulted in annual savings of 130,000kWh of electricity, worth US$5,600, and 140 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Two additional buildings have been retrofitted and the largest civic building has been audited, awaiting retrofit funding.

Residential buildings have also been targeted. In the Kuyasa Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) pilot project, for example, 10 demonstration houses were outfitted with solar water heaters, compact fluorescent light bulbs and insulated ceilings. Benefits of the retrofits include cost savings, improved indoor air quality, more comfortable temperatures, and emissions reductions. This low cost urban housing project has since received international recognition and in 2005 was validated as the world’s first Gold Standard CDM project. The scheme will eventually retrofit 2,310 households in Khayelitsha, eliminating around 6,200 tonnes of emissions annually.

Emissions from petrol and diesel consumption of 7,700 municipally operated cars and trucks account for 13% of Cape Town’s corporate emissions. In August 2003, Kulani Africa Gas converted two vehicles in Cape Town’s fleet to LPG (liquid petroleum gas) and hosted a training course for five drivers. Monitoring of this pilot project showed average cost savings of $110 per vehicle month and a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 0.25 tonnes per vehicle month. The city plans to pilot a range of new transportation technologies including vehicles based on biofuels, diesel, and fuel cells.

Cape Town is also restructuring and transforming its public transport system modeled on the successful examples of Bogota, Colombia, and Curitiba, Brazil . The plan will promote the development of high density public transport corridors and bus rapid transit systems, to maximise the use of existing road infrastructure and reduce average trip lengths and travel times.

A bicycle feasibility study has also been conducted and existing cycle tracks are being extended.

Cape Town’s Bellville South site is a significant source of methane emissions resulting from the decomposition of organic material. The city has proposed a CDM project at the site that would capture methane to be used as an energy source for adjacent industry. Conservative estimates suggest potential emissions reductions of 90,000 tonnes annually. As well as emissions reductions, co-benefits include improved air quality, cost savings in energy use, and the creation of new jobs through onsite recycling. The city’s solid waste landfills, which account for 33% of the city’s emissions, are also being considered as waste-to-energy CDM projects.

Solar water heating in a project to improve residential buildings in Kuyasa

Kulani Africa Gas has converted vehicles in Cape Town’s fleet to Liquid Natural Gas (LPG)