SA to go green with carbon tax?

2008-07-29 08:16

Cape Town - South Africa's transition to a low-carbon economy to combat global warming will be marked by ambitious and mandatory energy efficiency targets and the possible introduction of a carbon tax.

This was announced on Monday by Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, briefing journalists at Parliament on a long-term strategy to deal with climate change.

Cabinet had decided to adopt a "pro-active and scientifically and economically robust policy" to meet the challenge, he said.

Research shows that if world temperatures were to rise more than 2°C above pre-industrial age levels, the impact of climate change could be catastrophic.

Currently, average global temperatures were 0.7°C above those in the mid-eighteenth century.

SA's carbon footprint

Van Schalkwyk said the best-case scenario for South Africa, if action was taken now, showed greenhouse gas emissions - the main driver of global warming - rising to a "plateau" in 2020-25, before starting to decline in 2030-35.

The latest (2003) available figures peg South Africa's greenhouse gas emissions at the equivalent of 446 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

According to figures presented at Monday's briefing, this will rise by 100 million tons over the next decade, reaching about 550 million tons in 2027-28.

On a possible carbon tax, Van Schalkwyk said the Treasury was busy studying this option, along with a possible cap on trade.

"These are two separate instruments and we haven't taken a final decision," he said.

Current energy-efficiency and electricity-demand side initiatives would be scaled up and made mandatory through "available regulatory instruments and other appropriate mechanisms".

Diversifying energy sources

Government also planned to diversify the energy mix away from coal, while at the same time "introducing more stringent thermal efficiency and emissions standards for coal-fired power stations".

Van Schalkwyk did not spell out how this would impact on Eskom's current coal-fired power stations - the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa - but did say no new station would be approved that did not use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

Government was also set to introduce industrial policy "that favours sectors using less energy per unit of economic output and building domestic industries in these emerging sectors".

Further, it planned to set "ambitious and, where appropriate, mandatory national targets for the reduction of transport emissions".

Low-carbon commitment

This would include "stringent and escalating" fuel efficiency standards, promoting a shift towards public transport and the "aggressive promotion of hybrids and electric vehicles".

There would also be emphasis on closing the price gap between the cost of electricity from coal-fired power stations (currently, about 22 cents per kilowatt-hour) and renewable resources such as solar (46 cents per kWh) and wind power (56 cents per kWh).

"This Cabinet decision is sending a very strong message that as a government and as a country we are committing ourselves to a low-carbon economy," Van Schalkwyk said.

- SAPA