Insight
Where’s the
regulatory detail?
There is a marked absence of regulatory detail that organisations need to
guide their preparations to comply with the proposed Climate Change Bill,
says Ashleigh Maritz and Estie Retief.
W
hile industry and
environmental practitioners
have welcomed the first draft
of the Climate Change Bill, there is
mounting impatience at the absence of
the regulatory detail that organisations
need to guide their preparations to
comply.
The bill has been presented over
recent weeks by the Department of
Environmental Affairs (DEA) at
stakeholder engagement sessions
around the country, and has faced
searching questions from large
industry players, municipalities, and
NGOs alike.
According to Ashleigh Maritz,
senior environmental scientist at SRK
Consulting, the DEA has pointed out
that the detail will follow in the form
of regulations, once the bill is passed
into law — but many companies feel
that time is running out, and that
South Africa has fallen behind.
“In the absence of South African
climate change legislation, many local
industrial companies take the Paris
Agreement and other international
frameworks into consideration, as
detailed legal requirements that will
apply to them from a South African
legislative perspective are still not
specified,” says Maritz.
International standards can be used
for developing greenhouse gas (GHG)
inventories, carbon reduction strategies,
vulnerability assessments, adaptation
plans, and mitigation plans — all being
important contributors towards future
compliance.
She highlighted the technical
and financial challenges that large
carbon emitters face in repurposing
their operations to meet new carbon
emission requirements — a process
[40] MINING MIRROR NOVEMBER 2018
that could take several years of
planning, design, and implementation.
In some cases, the necessary
technology to achieve compliance in
certain industry segments may not yet
be available.
“It is understandable that the
compliance details will go into the
regulations of this proposed legislation,
as it takes several years for a law to
be passed through parliament,” says
SRK environmental scientist, Estie
Retief. “However, companies are under
growing pressure to comply and it is
not clear whether the time frames to
do so will be realistic — especially
since the regulations will still take
some time to be developed.”
Businesses are also looking for
guidance on how their compliance with
the carbon tax will be affected by this
bill, as tax issues fall under separate
customs and excise legislation.
There was some concern among the
different spheres of government about
their precise regulatory functions and
authority in terms of enforcement, as
the bill is unclear on the delegation
of authority. “Some municipalities are
setting emission reduction targets and
they have compiled GHG inventories,”
says Maritz.
“Municipalities need clarity on how
they can enforce emission reduction
targets if the regulatory responsibility
resides at national level.
The bill follows on from a climate
change framework document and a
National Climate Change Response
White Paper and aims to underpin
a coordinated effort in all spheres of
government to address the country’s
climate change response. The bill’s
objective is to promote a reduction in
carbon emissions in selected industries,
while managing the impacts of climate
change and facilitating the necessary
adaptations by society and industry.
The bill calls for ‘needs and response
assessments’ from municipalities,
and this is certainly an area where
progress can be made in the run-up
to the enforcement of the climate
change legislation. It is anticipated
that municipalities will have resource
and capacity challenges with the
implementation of the imminent
legislation and may need assistance
from practitioners in this regard.
Retief emphasised the need for
stakeholders to continue with their
proactive efforts to reduce their carbon
emissions, in anticipation of the more
detailed requirements in future. b
About the authors
Ashleigh Maritz is a senior
environmental scientist at SRK
Consulting while Estie Retief
is an environmental scientist at
SRK Consulting.
SRK is an independent,
global network of consulting
practices in over 45 countries on
six continents. Its experienced
engineers and scientists work
with clients in multidisciplinary
teams to deliver integrated,
sustainable solutions across
a range of sectors, namely
mining, water, environment,
infrastructure, and energy.
www.miningmirror.co.za