South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed into law a new climate change act, the first of its kind for the country. The legislation aims to both reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change already baked into the global system.
The new law aims to set South Africa on a path to meet its commitments to the 2015 Paris climate agreement. To achieve this, the legislation requires more than 20 government departments and state-owned entities to develop strategies to adapt to climate change and meet national emission goals. For example, the legislation establishes that ministers must set emissions reduction targets for each sector of the economy, including energy, transport and agriculture, that are in line with the country’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction trajectory.
While pivotal, the climate change legislation has received some criticism for “watering down” penalties and compliance measures, following corporate lobbying.
“But what it lacks in teeth, it makes up for in equal measure in its substantive provisions on adaptation, sector targets, generous principles and cooperative governance,” Olivia Rumble, a climate change policy expert with the South Africa-based consultancy Climate Legal, wrote for the news outlet African Climate Wire. Rumble co-led the drafting team of the first iteration of the climate change bill.
South Africa is among the world’s top 15 largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The country is also the largest economy in Africa and the largest per capita emitter of GHGs on the continent. Most of the country’s emissions, 83%, come from burning coal. The new law is potentially a radical change in terms of how the country is powered.
At a recent press conference, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, South Africa’s minister of electricity and energy, said he was going to be “ultra-aggressive” on renewable energy, according to a Reuters report. “We are going to be the leaders on this continent in relation to renewables,” he said.
In July, President Ramaphosa addressed a climate resilience symposium in South Africa where he said he aims to reach net-zero emissions for South Africa by 2050. He also outlined the damage climate change has already caused the country, including floods that destroyed homes, drought that hurts the most vulnerable small scale farmers, and severe storms that stopped shipping offshore.
“It is critical that we strengthen systems for adaptation and mitigation, build resilience in communities and accelerate our decarbonization efforts and the pace of the just energy transition,” he said at the symposium. “If we work together, if we understand the risks and if we appreciate the urgency, we can make our country climate resilient. And in doing so, we can build a sustainable future for generations to come.”
Banner image of Arnot Power Station in South Africa. By Gerhard Roux via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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