Copenhagen — A leading South African climate change negotiator says SA's offer to scale back the rate of growth of carbon emissions is voluntary and not legally binding.
Joanne Yarwitch, a senior negotiator and deputy director-general at the Department of Environmental Affairs, said yesterday that the offer meant emissions would still increase, but the carbon intensity of the economy would be reduced.
On Sunday, for the first time, SA presented numbers that showed it would deviate from the current emissions baseline by about 34% by 2020 and by 42% by 2025, which would see emissions peak between 2020 and 2025, plateau for a decade, and decline in absolute terms thereafter.
The undertaking is conditional on reaching a fair, ambitious and effective agreement in climate change negotiations under the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. It also depends on the international community providing finance, technology and support for capacity building, in line with developed countries' existing commitments.
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Speaking from the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, Yarwitch said SA was undertaking nationally appropriate mitigating action, in line with the Bali Action Plan agreed last year. This action is voluntary and not legally binding.
"This approach takes into account our need to grow as a developing country, and the need for poverty alleviation and (action on) unemployment," she said.
Yarwitch said the figures took existing and planned energy projects into account. This means that energy-intensive projects such as Eskom's Medupi and Kusile plants, as well as Sasol 's Mafutha project and PetroSA's planned oil refinery, could still go ahead, she explained.
She said the energy department's announcement that it would give 3-million households solar water heaters over the next five years would contribute to the planned deviation, as would the government's targets for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
"It is not a target. We have declared what we believe we can do," she said.
The calculated deviation is based on the long-term mitigation scenarios, approved by the Cabinet last year. However, the effect of the scenarios has not been presented until now.
Yarwitch said the delegation was also "pushing hard" for a deal on adaptation, as SA is vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Ferrial Adam, a researcher at Earthlife Africa, welcomed the announcement but expressed concern over the details.
"It's about time the South African government put figures on the table," Adam said.
"We need absolute emissions reductions. If you look at our emissions, we almost don't fit the profile of a developing country, and we need to address that."
She said SA needed to move more swiftly to achieve its energy efficiency and renewable energy targets, and said more detail was needed on how the deviation would be achieved.
SA has come under serious pressure in previous climate change negotiations as developed countries -- which have signed up for legally binding targets and which bear historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions presently in the atmosphere -- try to shift some of the burden onto large developing countries.
SA has refused to take on a legally binding target, arguing this is for developed countries.
World Wildlife Fund SA's climate change policy activist Tasneem Essop said in Copenhagen the pledge was an "example of emerging economies contributing in a meaningful way to secure a successful outcome in Copenhagen".
It came after China pledged last month to cut its projected emissions growth by 40%-45% per unit of gross domestic product on 2005 levels. India has said it would aim for a reduction of 20%-25% on projected emissions by 2025. " Collectively, offers by developing countries represent more tons of carbon reductions than what industrialised countries have offered thus far," she said.
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