South Africa’s average temperatures are rising more than the global average and the carbon tax law aimed at slashing emissions responsible for extreme climate breakdowns is too little, too late, according to campaigners and the communities where pollution-related sicknesses are already a reality.
South Africa’s carbon tax law kicks-in on June 1 after nearly a decade of delays, and forms the centrepiece of the climate mitigation response of one of Africa’s worst polluters.
The carbon tax response falls short of emissions targets the country signed up for in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and is considered “highly insufficient” by the Climate Action Tracker group.
On Wednesday the Department of Environment (DOE) retracted a change to minimum emission standards that would allow all coal-fired boilers to emit double their current allowable sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions.