The Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) has welcomed the publishing for comments of the draft South Africa Renewable Energy Masterplan (SAREM).

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy published the draft masterplan for comments on Monday.

The SAREM is a document 18 months in the making with the DMRE holding extensive consultations with stakeholders, industry experts, labour and other government departments.

"The SAREM heralds a new impetus for our country's renewable energy drive and ambition. To this end, as PCC we welcome the four priorities as outlined in SAREM being: Supporting the local demand for renewable energy by unlocking market demand and system readiness, driving industrial development by building renewable energy value chains, and supportive trade and industrial policy, fostering inclusive development through transformation, supporting the development of emerging suppliers and building local capabilities in skills and innovation and associated industrial development.

"The PCC therefore acknowledges the SAREM as a catalytic contribution to our country's transition to a net zero carbon future and provides a baseline for social consensus and further detailed planning and implementation of essential projects and programmes to achieve our objectives by 2030," the commission said.

The PCC emphasised that although the SAREM is a step in the right direction, resolving South Africa's current energy crisis remains a top priority.

"The commission reiterates that the immediate challenge remains the current energy crisis and reaffirms its support for the Energy Action Plan, and the broader reforms to the energy sector particularly, the lifting of the cap on embedded generation, and enabling household roof-top solar systems through incentives and feed-in tariff regime as announced previous by government.

"The Commission believes that the Masterplan should contribute to the achievement of a just transition and supports the shift of South Africa's electricity supply and reiterates the need of a 'transition-capable' developmental state to navigate the complexities of transition and in moving forward, the PCC will submit additional comment on the SAREM to the DMRE for consideration by government on the implementation of the SAREM in line with our recent pronouncement on the energy mix," the PCC said.