Bobby Peek: Climate Change is an Energy Debate
Channel: SACSIS
Date: 2011-11-24

Bobby Peek director of Durban based environmental justice NGO, Groundwork argued that the climate change debate was an energy debate and that the poor do not have access to energy.

He also said that the South African government's claim that the Kusile and Medupi coal-fired power stations would produce jobs has not materialized.

Peek made these remarks at a roundtable discussion, which sought to ascertain how the South African media is reporting on climate change in the run up to COP17. The roundtable was co-hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office and the South African Civil Society Information Service. It took place on November 11, 2011.

Keynote speakers at the event included: Brendan Boyle (Editor, Daily Dispatch), Sue Blaine (Environment and Development Editor, Business Day), Prof. Herman Wasserman, (Deputy Head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University), Bobby Peek (Director, Groundwork) and Saliem Fakier (Head of the Living Planet Unit at the World Wildlife Fund and SACSIS columnist).