Concerns over deferred sections in Climate Change Act
An environmental group says that while it welcomes the Climate Change Act coming into effect, it is concerned that some sections have been deferred.
President Cyril Ramaphosa proclaimed the piece of law on Monday.
Environment Minister Dion George explained that they are finalising regulations before implementing the delayed sections.
He said that the regulations will soon be published for public comment.
The Green Connection's Lisa Makaula said the parts of the law that have been deferred deal with climate adaptation planning, carbon budgets and phasing out of greenhouse gases.
She said these are critical aspects that speak to how communities and municipalities would mitigate the impact of climate change.
" So firstly, on those deferred sections, it would mean that the municipalities will need to have some climate mitigation measures in terms of how does the municipality respond when there happens to be an issue of climate change or a disaster in the communities.
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“The funding as well, in terms of how their response mechanism will be from a financial perspective. But all of the other sections now that have been deferred, it means obviously that information is not currently available.”
Makaula added that when the remaining sections come into effect, Eskom would have to retire or decommission certain power plants.
"And that would mean, how do they also re-skill some of the people who are already employed in the fossil fuel industry because they need to be re-skilled to fit the current upcoming industry's renewable energy programmes.
"So all of those things would need to be taken into consideration, and also make sure that there's a reduction of carbon emissions when it comes to the projects that we bring about in this energy transition."
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