The department of forestry, fisheries & the environment is hoping for the Climate Change Bill to be adopted by parliament before the 2024 general elections.
The bill is urgent, not only because elections are around the corner, but also because it will set the pace and pathway for climate mitigation, including SA meeting its global carbon emissions reduction commitments.
Crucially, it will also provide a framework for real adaptation, ensuring that communities are better able to respond to and recover from the effects of climate change such as extreme weather events. The need for adaptation, as the 2022 KwaZulu-Natal floods taught us, is already overdue.
The bill, which is making its way through parliament, attracted more than 13,000 public comments. While there is wide support for its general thrust — “to develop an effective climate change response and a long-term just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy” — there are also many concerns around its successful implementation.
Many comments received from the public highlighted the lack of provisions or penalties for companies that fail to implement a greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation plan. As shareholder activist Just Share and others said during public hearings, the bill does not go far enough to ensure accountability for big polluters.
It stipulates that companies allocated a carbon budget (the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions a company is permitted over a period of time) has to submit a GHG mitigation plan for approval by the environment affairs minister describing how the business will remain within the budget. The bill does make provision for a maximum fine of R5m to be imposed if a company fails to submit this plan, but there is no provision or penalty for when it fails to implement this plan.
Another potential weakness is the large responsibility it places on lower spheres of government, such as municipalities, which have a less than glowing record for efficiency, delivery, sound financial management. In 2021/22 only 38 out 257 municipalities received clean audits.
Municipalities will have only a year to undertake a climate change needs and response assessment for the areas they govern, as well as develop and implement a climate change response implementation plan. However, as several of the comments on the bill have alluded, municipalities are not adequately funded or capacitated to perform existing functions, and it is unlikely they will have the financial and institutional capacity to fulfil the role that the bill foresees.
The SA Local Government Association (Salga) said in its submission the bill does not consider whether municipalities have the necessary skills, expertise and capacity to undertake climate change needs and response assessments within the stipulated one-year time frame. Salga also argued municipalities would need financial and technical support to implement the bill.
Forestry, fisheries & environment minister Barbara Creecy has agreed the bill needs a clause that allows for funding of municipalities to help them fulfil their role in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. But money alone won’t solve the problem when municipalities lack capacity to manage their budgets and implement projects.
If municipalities can’t be fixed to function properly, implementation of the bill will fail.
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