Climate change summit conclusions

South Africa is inching closer to formulating its climate change policy, and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (Deat) says it aims to publish the draft climate change policy in August this year.

This comes after the recent National Climate Change Summit, which was held in Midrand. Information and conclusions from the summit will be collated by May, when drawing up the draft policy will start.

The end-goal is to have in place a policy white paper on Climate Change by 2010, which will translate into a legislative, regulatory and fiscal package by 2012.

The initial draft paper, based on the discussions at the summit, will also inform South Africa's participation at the international climate change negotiations under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.

Deat director-general Joanne Yawitch explains that agreements resulting from the Copenhagen meeting will also then contribute to the draft document. Following this, Parliamentary engagement on the document will be sought, and a "much more inclusive policy" is hoped for.

Immediate Priorities
Summit delegates agreed that while the policy is being developed, existing interventions should continue.

Focus on the mandatory standards for energy efficiency, including standards for commercial and residential buildings, fuel efficiency standards was highlighted.

Scaling up on renewable energy efforts was also noted, including the roll-out of solar water heaters (SWHs) and the development of a local industry producing SWHs.

Finalising and implementing a renewable energy feed-in-tariff was emphasised, and the need for it to be at a level that would adequately incentivise large scale investment was reiterated.

The "working for energy" initiative and other initiatives to create ‘green jobs' in energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as the "working for adaptation" seeking to develop programme to build climate resilience should continue.

The development of a "Risk and Vulnerability Atlas" to inform adaptation responses and planning would need to be accelerated, as well as the atlas depicting sites suitable for carbon capture and storage (CCS), and the establishment of a CCS centre.

The Greenhouse Gas inventory, and the second national communications submission for the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change needed to be finalised.

Developing regulations for mandatory emissions monitoring and reporting were also immediate priorities, along with the need to complete the National Treasury report of options to implement a price on carbon in 2009, as well as fast-tracking the implementation of favourable tax treatment for carbon credits from Clean Development Mechanism projects.

Consensus
The summit included speakers ranging from South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk as well as numerous other departmental Ministers, representatives from business and labour, Eskom, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and scientists.

There was widespread consensus on a number of issues including: pursuing "what is required by science", consistent with the lowest stabilisation levels assessed by the IPCC; the transition to a low carbon economy and society; the need for a strong science-policy interface; balancing the country's adaptation and mitigation responses; and the need to scale up the use of renewable energies and energy efficiency.

The need for greater public education and awareness on climate change; putting a price on carbon through a mix of financial instruments; enhanced government coordination and policy alignment; and energy efficient standards for industrial equipment and processes, were also agreed upon.

Contention
Although delegates came from the same point of departure, there were still important areas of divergence.

Topping the list of contentious issues was the nature of the South Africa's energy mix going forward.

The meaning of ‘cleaner energy', and the transparency of integrated energy planning and optimal institutional arrangements were questioned. In particular, the country's approach to coal-based electricity, the nuclear roll-out, and the feasibility of renewable energy technologies to address the base-load demand were intensely debated.

Van Schalkwyk affirms that further engagement will take place on areas where consensus was difficult to find. "Most importantly on the optimal energy mix for the country - this is the single most important area of work," he adds.

Certain NGOs were calling for a moratorium on the construction of coal-fired base load power stations, after Eskom's current new-build stations.

Transparency in the decision making process was stressed by most summit participants, with many calling for an independent review of Eskom's new build programme in light of climate change considerations.

Also hotly debated was the issue of economic instruments. Most participants felt that taxes, emissions trading, incentives and subsidies could play a role. Some delegates felt that a double dividend - both greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and socio-economic benefits - could be achieved by the recycling of revenues of carbon tax or auctioning allowances for domestic GHG emissions trading, while other cautioned about the potential impacts of increased taxes in the current financial context.

Although there is still much work to be done, Van Schalkwyk says he is "encouraged by the strong resolve to meet the dual challenges of adaptation and mitigation by placing sustainable development and poverty eradication at the forefront".

"The strong consensus on making the transition to a climate resilient and low carbon economy and society will underpin our future work. Parallel to the policy development process, we will actively continue to implement our priority actions," he says.

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