South Africa needs to speed up its efforts to cut carbon emissions to ensure a more sustainable future, say analysts.
Joanne Henstock, Africa executive director for governance, integrated reporting and sustainability at EY, says South Africa faces significant challenges in achieving its commitments to cut carbon emissions.
“A number of other African nations seem to be demonstrating better levels of proactivity in terms of reaching agreed policy settings and planning for achieving phased emissions reductions,” says Henstock.
She says slicing emissions can only be achieved as part of well-coordinated national planning. “Government-level policy and planning for carbon emissions reduction are evolving, but, in South Africa, this effort needs to be accelerated, particularly [when considering] the country’s increasing level of emissions.”
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) report for 2017 says South African companies score well for governance and engagement, but suggests they are not planning adequately for the long term. A total of 82% of South African companies set emissions reduction targets (10th out of the CDP’s total of 27 global samples), while only 44% set absolute emissions reduction targets (15th out of the CDP’s total of 27 global samples) in 2017.
Henstock says a company’s social and environmental performance is key to its survival and growth. It needs to go hand in hand with its financial and economic performance. “Simply put, the long-term sustainability of any entity is linked to how well it performs in creating and sustaining total value.”
Companies could also complement city targets in its effort to reduce carbon emissions. Several South African cities have made firm commitments to bold climate action plans over the past few weeks. Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Tshwane joined other African cities – Accra, Addis Ababa, Dakar, Dar es Salaam and Lagos – in a pledge to deliver on their share of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The International Climate Initiative launched its C40 Climate Action Planning Africa Programme last month. It has promised to help African cities develop unprecedented, robust and evidence-based long-term climate action plans.
Nine mayors have agreed to setting targets to reduce their carbon footprint, buoyed by the realisation that African cities are among the fastest-growing in the world.