The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), as the administrator of the Carbon Offset Administrator, has activated the Carbon Offset Administration System (COAS) to be live as of July 23.
COAS will facilitate the receipt and approval of project applications, as well as the issuance of the offset retirement certificates as required by carbon tax payers to claim the carbon offset allowance under the Carbon Tax Act.
The carbon offset regulations became effective as of June 1, 2019.
Through the regulations, government aims to provide a flexibility mechanism that will enable industry to deliver least cost mitigation at a lower cost to what would be achieved in their own operations, and thereby lower their tax liability.
Further, government wants to incentivise mitigation in economic sectors or in relation to activities that are not directly subject to the Carbon Tax or benefitting from other government incentives.
The regulations provide an offset mechanism that may be used to develop carbon offset projects to enable reduction in respect of Carbon Tax liability, hence the activation of the COAS.
The DMRE has invited all the relevant participants, as outlined by the Carbon Offsets Regulations, to register on the system to enable the submission of project applications for further processing at www.carbon.energy.gov.za .