Cabinet okays lower greenhouse emissions target

The cabinet has approved the adoption of tougher greenhouse gas emission targets as the country prepares for the UN’s climate change conference, also known as COP26, where it is likely to attract attention as Africa’s biggest source of greenhouse gases.

The cabinet said in a statement on Monday that it had approved the revised climate change mitigation target range for submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the international body tasked with stabilising greenhouse gas emissions.

SA’s new target — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – is for annual greenhouse emissions to be kept at between 371 and 420 megatons (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.

This is far less than those contained in previous proposals by the department of environmental affairs, which had suggested a target range of between 398Mt and 440Mt. The presidential climate commission recommended that the target to reduce emissions be more ambitious — in the range of 350Mt to 420Mt.

The commission, which presented its first report to President Cyril Ramaphosa in July, called for SA to decarbonise faster than the government had proposed to mitigate climate change risk and the prospect of being punished by trading partners, which have warned that they will penalise carbonintensive economies and products in the future, with dire consequences for exporters such as the automotive sector.

More than 60% of vehicles produced in SA are exported, mostly to Europe. The European Commission has proposed a carbon border tax on imports of carbon-intensive steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers and electricity, as it seeks to meet its own targets.

The faster path for SA will imply an acceleration in the decommissioning of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations from what was previously planned.

The power utility, which supplies virtually all of SA’s energy, is still heavily reliant on coal to generate electricity.

Accelerating the reduction of greenhouse emissions will also depend on large industrial emitters making mitigation efforts, as well as changes in agricultural and land use policies and sup

port from international development finance organisations.

The impact of the energy transition on industry, the economy and jobs, particularly in the coal and energy sectors, is deemed manageable by the presidential commission, which believes that job losses can be offset by gains in new sectors.

Unions have mostly opposed the acceleration of renewable energy because of its implications for their members employed in fossil fuel sectors.

The cabinet said the revised target range of greenhouse emissions is aligned to the recommendations of the panel on climate change.

Under the Paris Agreement on climate change signed in 2016, all parties are required to deposit NDCs every five years. SA deposited its first NDC in October 2015.

The cabinet also said it had approved the submission of the National Climate Change Bill to parliament. The bill seeks to provide a legal instrument towards the implementation of the National Climate Change Response Policy.

It allows for the alignment of policies that will influence the country’s climate change response, and provides for the transitional arrangement for the move towards a lower carbon and climate-resilient economy.