The new Climate Change Act signed into law this week — ahead of the first State of Climate Action in South Africa report to be released on Thursday — provides a crucial scaffolding on which to build the country's climate actions despite limitations, say climate experts and advocates while expressing their support for it.
Presidential Climate Commission executive director Crispian Olver said of the new act: “It is an extremely significant piece of legislation, but a lot will depend on how it gets implemented.”
The commission’s benchmark review of the country’s “State of Climate Action” found inconsistent implementation of a “great set of policies”, he said.
Among the strengths of the Climate Change Act are the “mainstreaming” of climate targets across all ministries and levels of government, the delegation of more powers to the minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment, and the recognition of the commission as the state’s “key advisory body on climate change”, stakeholders said.
The Western Cape government welcomed the act, saying it “provides a road map to provinces for responding to the challenge of climate change”.
Weaknesses of the act include inadequate penalties for breaking the law, for example, if companies exceed their mandatory carbon budgets, and a lack of clarity on financing to implement the act, according to the organisation Natural Justice, lawyers supporting human and environmental rights.
Head of campaigns Katherine Robinson also flagged concerns about “contradictory legislation” such as the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill, which could undermine the new law.
Gabriel Klaasen, spokesperson for the environmental and social justice organisation Project 90 by 2030, said many people were excited about the passing of this important legislation, but he also raised concern about “plans and policies that contradict the ambitious hopes that accompany the act”.
“We hope to see regulations set forward to ensure that the objectives set out within it are met and that our leaders will have the political will to act on them,” he said.
The regulations governing carbon budgets for high-emitting companies still need to be finalised, and the sectoral emission targets that guide relevant line ministries are still in process, noted James Reeler, senior manager for climate action for WWF South Africa, while supporting the “mainstreaming” of climate targets across government ministries.
He urged that the regulations governing emission targets and company carbon budgets be implemented as soon as feasible.
“After nearly 10 years of engagement, and seven years after the first draft bill was published, it is heartening to see this act finally passed. Over this same period South Africa has emitted over 4-billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, and the evidence of climate change impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods has become increasingly apparent,” Reeler said.
“Our country is being slammed with extreme weather events, costing lives and money...the act is crucial for advancing environmental democracy
— Katherine Robinson, Natural Justice head of campaigns
People throughout the country will be able to express their views on climate change through provincial and municipal forums and all levels of government will have “to consider the implications of climate change on their operations and plan ... to be climate resilient” said commissioner Louise Naudé, WWF’s senior climate change engagement specialist.
The provinces are required to draw up climate response plans and consult stakeholders under the new act. “The linking of climate change adaptation to local-level planning has long been a gap,” the WWF said.
Robinson said the act “though overdue and imperfect” showed that government recognises South Africa's vulnerability to the climate emergency and its contribution to it.
“Our country is being slammed with extreme weather events, costing lives and money ... the act is crucial for advancing environmental democracy — it can and should be used by all South Africans to hold our government and big business to account” she said.
“Where the act falls short is that mandatory carbon budgets are weakened without punitive enforcement. The act allows companies to get away with overshooting their carbon budgets,” Robinson said.
On the plus side, she supported the greater powers for the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment, “often subservient to the ambitions of DMRE (department of mineral resources & energy and energy), to develop emissions targets for various sectors and partners, including energy and electricity”.
The country is broadly on track to meet its 2025 emission targets in line with its global commitments, said Olver. “But we need to really ramp up efforts if we want to get to the 2030 targets,” he said, sounding an alarm bell on progress towards a low-carbon economy.
The commission's State of Climate Action report also showed that the country was “way behind on adaptation” and had failed to meet on a string of adaptation targets, he said. “The commission is particularly worried about how the accelerated effects of climate change are now playing out on infrastructure, water and food systems.”
The new act sets out a “comprehensive regulatory system governing both mitigation and adaptation” but it had to be read in relation to fiscal instruments, such as the carbon tax, Olver said.
The good relationship that minister Dion George has with business and the Treasury will help to bring the sector more firmly into this climate regime, in his view.
The appointment of former environment minister Barbara Creecy as transport minister would also help to advance the “green transport strategy”, Olver said. “Transport is the next frontier.”
The act’s success — to mitigate climate harms and adapt to the climate emergency — will be affected by financing which needs to be strengthened, said Robinson.
“Funding for implementation, monitoring, adaptation and resilience strategies ... will be the difference between an act that gathers dust with severe implications on citizens’ human rights and our economy, and a piece legislation that advances a climate resilient and climate just future for all South Africans,” she said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.