果冻影院

Professor Marais聽was commissioned by the South African nonprofit law clinic,聽, on behalf of their clients, to provide expert critique of聽聽assessments of the environmental and聽climate change听颈尘辫补肠迟蝉

Companies intending to extract fossil fuels need to gain environmental authorisation from the South African government by submitting environmental impact and climate change impact assessments that demonstrate compliance with the .

Tetra4 applied for authorisation to establish 100s of new conventional natural gas drilling wells at the world鈥檚 largest and oldest known meteorite impact crater, a UNESCO world heritage property, located in the Free State province of South Africa that could lead to the extraction of up to 45 million cubic feet of natural gas per day for 20 years.

Professor Marais identified that Tetra4 used outdated science to estimate the climate warming potential of the potent greenhouse gas methane that constitutes about 90% of natural gas. Tetra4 also did not consider the high rates of methane leakage that can occur during extraction, production, transport and storage of natural gas which puts the climate warming potential of natural gas on par with other fossil fuels like coal, diesel and petrol. Tetra4 also did not account for all the sources of public health-harming air pollutants emitted along the full lifespan of the project, from establishing drilling sites to decommissioning and rehabilitating the site.

The report by Professor Marais, alongside a report by an expert geohydrologist of the potential groundwater contamination, led to the by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment聽that the company must address deficiencies in their assessments for proper determination of compliance with environmental governance.

Professor Marais said of the outcome that it is 鈥渞eally edifying to use findings from academic research to advocate against the establishment of new fossil fuel projects that would lead to additional dependence on fossil fuels in a country that doesn鈥檛 have the means to monitor and enforce compliance, routinely experiences devastating extreme weather events attributable to anthropogenic climate change, and is lagging its Paris Climate Accord commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Paul Lado, attorney at the Centre for Environmental Rights, said that the 鈥渄ecision to set aside and remit Tetra4鈥檚 application back to the initial decision-maker is a win for the environmental justice movement at large. Our client鈥檚 briefing of experts to attest to the shortcomings in Tetra4鈥檚 specialist studies around climate change and geohydrology were instrumental in the outcome of the appeal decision. The Minister specifically stated that the concerns raised in the report of Professor Marais should be addressed in ordering Tetra4 to reassess the climate change impacts of their proposed extraction project. The relationship between lawyers and their clients with academics is crucial in ensuring that environmental justice, a key human right, is realised.鈥�

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