South Africa’s high carbon footprint comes from the burning of coal. South Africa relies on coal to generate 80% of the country’s energy, Eskom uses coal to generate 90% of its energy, most of which is used to power up South Africa. The coal industry employs approximately 80,000 people, mostly within regions with extremely high levels of unemployment. Thus, the move away from coal to generate energy will be slow and difficult as it needs to be done while maintaining economic stability. Because of this simply stopping the burning of coal is not practical. A way to make South Africa greener would be investing in renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. This transition will take time. And people would have to be conscious of jobs lost if coal plants shut down. Jobs would be needed so that this would not have a heavy impact on the economy.