The government is seeking to obtain international support of about R120bn ($8bn) by 2030 to finance its fight against greenhouse gas emissions and make its economy less harmful to the environment.
SA, the world’s 12th-biggest producer of greenhouse gases, has committed itself to improving its target for reducing its projected emissions of the pollutants 28% by 2030.
The money will be used for low-carbon infrastructure and for a just transition to a lower carbon emission economy.
The major focus in the years ahead will be on reducing emissions of SA’s mega carbon-fuelled, polluting power stations.
The proposal for more funding is contained in the updated nationally determined contribution (NDC), a draft which was approved by the cabinet last week for public comment and which forestry, fisheries & environment minister Barbara Creecy officially launched on Tuesday.
The NDC envisages SA reducing the upper range of its greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2025 and 2030 compared with the 2015 NDC targets by 17% and 28%, respectively, ranging from 398-million to 510-million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2025, and from 398-million to 440-million tonnes CO2-equivalents in 2030. The 2015 NDC targeted greenhouse gas emission range was 398-million to 614-million tonnes CO2 equivalents between 2025 and 2030.
After the consultation process, the updated NDC will be submitted to the cabinet for approval and then to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) before the 26th international climate change conference to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
The UNFCCC has found that the current global effort is not sufficient to avoid dangerous climate change, and all countries are in agreement that more needs to be done.
In a briefing on the draft plans, the department’s chief director of international climate change negotiations Maesela Kekana said the 2025 target range would allow SA time to fully implement a national mitigation system, including those elements contained in the Climate Change Bill, and to allow space for the implementation of the integrated resource plan (IRP) 2019 and other key policies and measures, as well as national recovery from Covid-19.
The long-term decarbonisation of the economy will focus primarily on the electricity sector in the 2020s.
Kekana noted that among the considerations taken into account in drawing up the draft NDC were SA’s poverty, unemployment and inequality, its status as a developing country, as well as what SA’s fair contribution to the global mitigation effort should be.
Also considered were SA’s likely emissions in 2025 and 2030 with the implementation of currently planned mitigation policies.
Creecy said that consultations on the draft Climate Change Bill had been finalised within the National Economic Development and Labour Council and certification of the socioeconomic impact assessment study had been received from presidency.
“The draft bill is currently with the state law advisers and will be submitted to the cabinet immediately thereafter upon precertification.”
She noted that the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the African Development Bank and World Bank are providing concessional financing to renewable energy projects totalling $462m.
Multilateral development banks had co-financed an additional sum of more than $535m of which Eskom had received support for a large-scale distributed battery storage programme linked to the renewable energy independent power producer programme.
The UK’s Partnering on Accelerated Climate Transition (Pact) also has a £3.2m programme to improve the flow of climate finance in SA.
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