President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Climate Change Act, 2004 (Act) into law on 18 July 2024. Although the Act was published in the Government Gazette on 23 July 2024, it will only come into operation on a future date. The date is yet to be announced by the President.
The Act does not impose specific obligations on private sector stakeholders. It however empowers the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (Minister) (in collaboration with other members of the Cabinet) to impose certain restrictions or specific obligations on companies.
A key example is the duty placed on the Minister to publish lists of greenhouse gases (GHG) which the Minister reasonably believes cause or are likely to cause or exacerbate climate change as well as activities which emit, or has the potential to emit, one or more of these GHG.
After publishing the lists, the Minister must allocate carbon budgets to companies that conduct listed activities. The carbon budgets will remain in place for at least three successive five-year periods and will specify the maximum amount of GHG that each company may emit during the first five-year period.
Once a carbon budget is allocated to a company, that company must prepare and submit a GHG mitigation plan to the Minister. The GHG mitigation plan must describe the mitigation measures that the company proposes to implement to remain within the allocated carbon budget and meet the additional process, procedural and reporting requirements which the Minister may prescribe in further regulations published under the Act.
The framework and various mechanisms created under the Act is considered in further detail in the briefing note which is available here.
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