THE government has reconfirmed its commitment to reducing its emissions trajectory — but business still has little detail on what it will be asked to do. SA has undertaken to reduce its emissions trajectory by 34% by 2020, calculated on a business as usual scenario, and by 42% by 2025. This was stressed on Thursday night by President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address, when he said SA had committed itself to specific reduction targets and would continue “working on a long-term climate change mitigation strategy”.
He said the industrial policy action plan and a focus on green jobs would build stronger and more labour-absorbing industries.
But on Friday, business complained that the detail on these commitments remained scanty . “Industry still has little detail on what each sector will be required to do,” said Laurraine Lotter, of the Chemical and Allied Industries Association .
Lotter, who is also Business Unity SA’s (Busa’s) spokeswoman on climate change, said 70% of emissions came from the energy sector. “We’ve got to see what the supply side will do, so we can see what we need to do. A saving on carbon dioxide emissions as a result of energy efficiency might not be sufficient in order to meet the pledge. It’s not going to be trivial. This is a serious commitment,” she said.
Lotter said each industry sector would be allocated a portion of the reduction needed, but that apportionment was not yet known. “We’ve got to know exactly how they added up the numbers.”
Lotter said Busa was eager to work with the government to create green jobs, which would probably be in service industries. She welcomed the confirmation that an independent system operator, separate from Eskom, would be established in the electricity sector.
Joanne Yawitch, deputy director- general in the Department of Environmental Affairs, said the government had held two closed meetings with industry to discuss the details of the pledge. The information would be released in due course.
A report produced last year, on which SA’s pledge was based, was still an internal discussion document, the department said.
An industry insider said there was unhappiness about the failure to release the report . “We as industry have no idea what the implications are. Between 8% and 10% on current levels is feasible; most industries can achieve this,” he said.
The report was possibly being held back to protect Eskom, which is seeking international funding for its new build programme, he said.
