What is South Africa’s new law on climate change? Premium

South Africa's Climate Change Bill aims to reduce emissions, while India lacks comprehensive climate legislation

The story so far: South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, signed into law a piece of legislation that will impose mandatory curbs on the emissions from large, fossil-fuel heavy industries and, require climate-adaptation plans from towns and villages. The President said this would enable South Africa to meet its emissions reduction commitments under the Paris agreement.

The Climate Change Bill was approved by South Africa’s National Assembly last November. South Africa relies on coal as its primary fuel source for electricity generation and is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters. According to an official estimate, net emissions in 2017 were estimated at 512 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e), an increase of 14% from 2000. In 2022, this fell to 405 Mt CO2e, a 3% fall from 2021, according to Statista. It is unclear if these numbers are strictly comparable and if the fall was linked to the worldwide, temporary dip in emissions following COVID-19. The energy sector represents roughly 80% of gross emissions, with energy industries (~60% ) and transport (~12%). Being an economy which is dependent on agriculture and tourism, South Africa has faced increasing Western pressure to accelerate its transition away from fossil fuel.

Every country submits Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), which are time-bound commitments to lower emissions. South Africa submitted its first NDC in 2016 and its updated NDC in 2021. The updated NDC commits to 31% reduction and a fixed target for GHG emissions levels of 398-510 MtCO2e by 2025, and 350-420 MtCO2e by 2030.

The NDC outlines an approach for a ‘just transition,’ — or the sustainable movement to jobs away from fossil-fuel dependent industries — to achieve targets, focusing on agriculture, forestry and other land use, energy, industrial processes and product use, and waste sectors. South Africa has estimated that it requires $8 billion per year by 2030. It has set an internal goal of reaching ‘net zero emissions’ by 2050 in its Low-Emission Development Strategy submitted in 2020. In addition, the Presidential Climate Commission released its Just Transition Framework in 2022, which aims to inform policy making at the nexus of climate and development to enable deep, just transformational shifts. These were the actions that preceded the signing of the Climate Change Bill.

India does not have a comprehensive legislation on climate change. Priyanka Chaturvedi, the Rajya Sabha parliamentarian, had moved a Private Member’s Bill, called the Council on Climate Change Bill, most recently in 2022. This proposed setting up a Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, for advising the Union government on all matters related to climate change but there has been no significant movement on this so far. However, climate change features in multiple Acts and subordinate legislation. These include the Environmental Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act, Energy Conservation Act, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act among others.

In April this year, the Supreme Court ruled that citizens have a “right against the adverse effects of climate change,” and referred to the fact that India did not have an omnibus legislation on climate change. “Despite Constitutional guarantees that give the citizens equality before the law and right to life and personal liberty, it was now necessary, in the Court’s view, to explicitly link the impact of climate change as something which impedes these rights of liberty, life and equality.” Prior to the UN Conference of Parties in Dubai last year, India communicated that the intensity of its energy emissions had reduced by 33% from 2005-2019, 11 years ahead of target. It also committed to revising its emissions intensity to 45% by 2030 in the updated set of NDC. Emission intensity refers to the total amount of GHG emitted for every unit increase of GDP. It is different from absolute emissions. India has also committed to source 50% of its electricity in 2030 from non-fossil fuel resources.