SA’s Greenhouse Gas emissions increase by 10.4%

SOUTH Africa’s 7th National Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Report 2000 to 2017 shows that emissions have increased by 10.4% over the 17-year period.

The 2000 to 2017 GHG emissions results revealed an increasing trend in emissions in the energy, Product Use (IPPU) and waste sectors. 

“The decrease in the net Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector is due to an increasing Land sink. There was an annual average increase of 2.0% between 2000 and 2009, and then emissions stabilised and declined with an average annual decline of 1.0%,” the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said on Tuesday.

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The latest report was published by Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy as part of South Africa’s commitment in terms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which required countries to not only address climate change, but also to monitor trends in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. 

One of the principal commitments includes developing, publishing and regularly updating national emission inventories of greenhouse gases.

Parties to the UNFCCC are also obligated to protect and enhance carbon sinks and reservoirs, such as forests, and implement measures that assist in national and regional climate change adaptation and mitigation.

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The Department said the information gleaned from the Inventory Report supports policy development and decision-making related to a viable climate change mitigation response as South Africa transitions to a low carbon and climate resilient society as outlined in the National Development Plan’s Vision 2030 and the National Climate Change Response Policy (2011).

“It is important in terms of supporting national imperatives, such as the implementation of the carbon tax, determining carbon budgets and other climate mitigation instruments so we can achieve the country’s developmental and sustainable development goals,” Creecy said.

The latest Report covers sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and removals by sinks, resulting from human or anthropogenic activities for the major greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).