Watch out for …
The SA Government is set to issue a Green paper on Climate Change in April 2010. It will cover both mitigation and adaptation policies.
Talk around town is that possible incentives and policy measures could include:
- A tax on carbon emissions effective 2012
- Mandatory carbon emission cuts on commercial buildings by 2015
- Mandatory carbon inventory calculations (probably for bigger companies, for those instance companies with an electricity bill greater than a certain size).
According to a Business Report story (27 January 2010), the government will release details of its commitment to cut carbon emissions during the year as it develops a white paper on climate change by year-end. The government made a pledge at the Copenhagen conference in December last year to cut carbon emissions by 34% from a business-as-usual scenario by 2020 and 42% by 2025. But the pledge is conditional on an internationally binding agreement on global warming being put in place and for developing countries to receive substantial technical and financial support.
Joanne Yawitch from the Dept. of Environmental Affairs says in the story that the pledge figure is based on a technical document (which has not been made public), drawing from the long-term mitigation scenarios and the integrated resource plan released by the Dept of Energy last month.
BUSA has made calls for the government to say how it intends to reach the targets by June this year.
In the meantime, Yawitch has confirmed that the pledge assumes the establishment of 100 megawatts of concentrated solar power and 200 megawatts of wind power; the introduction of independent power producers; the roll-out of solar water heaters; and achieving energy efficiency savings of 35% by 2015.