South Africa’s new law on climate change

South Africa’s new law on climate change

Subject: Env

Sec: Climate Change

Context:

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, signed into law a piece of legislation that will impose mandatory curbs on the emissions from large, fossil-fuel heavy industries and, require climate-adaptation plans from towns and villages. The President said this would enable South Africa to meet its emissions reduction commitments under the Paris agreement.

Significance of this law:

• The Climate Change Bill was approved by South Africa’s National Assembly.
• South Africa relies on coal as its primary fuel source for electricity generation and is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters.
• Net emissions in 2017 were estimated at 512 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e), an increase of 14% from 2000.
• The energy sector represents roughly 80% of gross emissions, with energy industries (~60% ) and transport (~12%).

Objectives of the Climate Change Act

• The main goal of the act is to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, which are high in South Africa because the country gets most of its energy from coal.
• The country is one of the biggest producers of carbon dioxide and has been having a hard time meeting its goals for lowering pollution.

Carbon Budget Allocations

• The law sets up a carbon budget method for big companies that release a lot of greenhouse gases.
• Each big company that emits will have its pollution limited for a certain amount of time.
• Companies will have to pay more in carbon taxes if they go over this limit, even though it’s not illegal to do so.

Steps has South Africa taken:

• Every country submits Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), which are time-bound commitments to lower emissions.
• South Africa submitted its first NDC in 2016 and its updated NDC in 2021. The updated NDC commits to 31% reduction.
• NDC outlines an approach for a ‘just transition,’ to achieve targets, focusing on agriculture, forestry and other land use, energy, industrial processes and product use, and waste sectors.
• South Africa has estimated that it requires $8 billion per year by 2030. It has set an internal goal of reaching ‘net zero emissions’ by 2050 in its Low-Emission Development Strategy submitted in 2020.
• The Presidential Climate Commission released its Just Transition Framework in 2022, which aims to inform policy making at the nexus of climate and development to enable deep, just transformational shifts. These were the actions that preceded the signing of the Climate Change Bill.