'Post-pandemic recovery plans must focus on growth aligned with sustainable agendas', says Creecy

18th February 2021

By: Simone Liedtke

Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

     

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As climate change is one of the new global realities, Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy has averred that “post-pandemic recovery plans must focus on growth aligned with sustainable agendas”.

South Africa is in need of a better understanding of the climate transition risk the country’s historical growth trajectory poses to the long-term sustainability of its economy and society.

As part of the February 17 Parliamentary debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA), Creecy said that, over the last year, in response to investor and societal pressure, nine of the world’s twelve largest economies, and many of South Africa’s major trading partners, “have already made net zero carbon commitments”.

These countries include China, the European Union (EU) bloc, Japan and Korea. Similar pronouncements are expected from the US, after President Joe Biden announced that the country would re-join the Paris Agreement.

“Because our energy and production processes are highly carbon intensive, our major trading partners, who have made net zero commitments, are likely to prioritise trade with other low-carbon economies,” she said, lamenting that this posed a risk of non-tariff trade barriers going forward, as there was already increasing pressure from financial institutions which refused to fund the development of new carbon-intensive assets.

Additionally, the '2021 Global Risks Report' published in January this year under the auspices of the World Economic Forum, identified infectious diseases, livelihood crises and extreme weather events as the risks most likely to become critical threats to the world in the coming two years.

On the risk side, extreme weather events including storms, droughts and rising sea levels, are already part of peoples’ reality.

In the last week of January, more than 20 people died in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and South Africa as a result of the destruction caused by tropical cyclone Eloise, which Creecy said served as a reminder on “how vulnerable the developing world is to extreme weather events”.

Nevertheless, owing to the advanced early warning systems of the South African Weather Service, and the coordinated response of South Africa’s disaster management capability at national, provincial and local government level, the country was able to “take advance measures to manage some of the worst impacts of the storm on both people and infrastructure”.

This process was assisted by the implementation at all levels of government of adaptation strategies arising from the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy that was approved by Cabinet last year.

Creecy also noted that Ramaphosa “did not shy away from these challenges nor did he fail to indicate how we must address them” in his SoNA last week.

However, in noting that Eskom, South Africa’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter has committed in principle to net zero carbon emission by 2050, the President stressed the importance of the work of the Presidential Climate Change Commission that will meet for the first time this month.

Creecy said the commission “must develop a clear plan to take us from an aspirational commitment to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy and society to the reality of new technology, new investment and above all new jobs”. 

The commission will provide the much-needed institutional mechanism to bring together government, civil society, business and labour to advise government on the just transition.

It will further leverage partnerships and collaboration across all relevant sectors to implement programmes that encapsulate the just transition in a coherent and coordinated manner.

Additionally, investment in the green economy and green technologies provides strategic advantages for South Africa as it opens access to new green financing opportunities; it offers the possibility of significant proven job creation; it has potential to localise production and services which will build small and medium-sized enterprises and of course it enhances the country’s long-term competitiveness while mitigating its transition risks. 

The green industries component included in the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan highlights diversification of South Africa’s energy sources; retrofitting public and private buildings to improve energy and water efficiency; revitalisation of eco-tourism, hard hit by travel bans; research and development in the agricultural space on drought-resistant crops and cultivation methods; support for small-scale farmers in the forestry space; and building the circular economy in the waste management space. 

ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

Creecy also reported on some of the significant achievements in the green economy space to date, such as research conducted in 2018 by the South African Biodiversity Institute, which indicated that the biodiversity economy currently creates over 418 000 jobs across the tourism, wildlife, biotrade, bioprospecting, and the fisheries and forestry sectors. 

To support rural communities adversely affected by the decline of tourism, the department has, through the support of the Presidential Employment Stimulus created 50 000 work opportunities, almost 10 000 of which are in national parks and involve infrastructure repairs and upgrades so that facilities remain in good shape for when international tourism returns.

This year, the department also intends to, through the Forestry Master Plan, begin the recapitalisation of the country’s somewhat neglected State-owned forests.

“Our department will partner with the private sector and communities in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. This initiative will result in the development of owner growers and cooperatives, a major transformation initiative in the forestry sector,” Creecy indicated.

The department is also currently finalising consultation around the Section 18 Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes for the packaging, electronics and lighting sectors.

“We estimate that, once fully implemented, these schemes will assist us to divert 100 000 t of waste a year from landfills; provide secure employment to more than 20 000 people and ensure more than R7-billion in new investment.”

The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme had, by the end of June 2020, delivered capacity to produce 4 200 MW of power. This capacity has already offset 50-million tonnes of carbon dioxide and saved almost 60-million kilolitres of water.

This programme has created 52 600 jobs, attracted R210-billion in investment, pumped R1.2-billion into socioeconomic development initiatives into local communities and promoted ownership by historically disadvantaged South Africans. 

Electricity prices have dropped significantly over the four bid windows and are now below R1/kWh. In this regard, Creecy welcomed the President’s announcement of two further bid windows to be launched later this year.

As emphasised by Ramaphosa in his SoNA address, South Africa remains committed to multilateralism and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.

To this end, Creecy said her department would be undertaking a series of public consultations on revising the Nationally Determined Contribution to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions before submitting the final document to the UNFCCC ahead of the twenty-sixth Conference of Parties scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November. 

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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