African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics
Home›African Arguments›Politics›South Africa’s carbon tax debate: Business awaits clarity – By Jolyon Ford, Oxford Analytica.

South Africa’s carbon tax debate: Business awaits clarity – By Jolyon Ford, Oxford Analytica.

By Uncategorised
November 29, 2011
1453
0

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference (“˜COP 17′) started on Monday 28th in Durban. Whatever South Africa’s contribution to the multilateral debate, the business community remains somewhat uncertain about what the government intends on the home front by way of binding measures to address carbon emissions.

It’s true that since around 2009 the government has made no secret of its intention to more actively address the country’s high polluter status and coal-power dependency by diversifying its energy sources and behaviour-changing regulations and incentives. The cabinet has now adopted a white paper committing the government to taxing carbon emissions.

Pretoria is very conscious of its high polluter status on the continent – it remains sensitive to criticisms (valid or not) that it is contributing to greater risk of drought or floods in neighbouring southern African countries. It is also worried that, if its industries do not now begin a transition to lower-carbon emissions, they might lose the ability to access future markets that either tax or exclude imports from high-carbon economies.

Pretoria is also seeking reaffirmation and recognition as a serious continental and global diplomatic player – a tendency that increases its propensity to undertake initiatives that are seen as giving substance to its stated foreign policy aims. This might herald a forward push with wide-ranging carbon tax provisions.

However, the government is more likely to direct these energies to the multilateral plane. South Africa is under no international obligation (yet) to undertake reductions domestically. In the politicised atmosphere of the ANC electoral conference a year from now, economic realities are likely to limit its appetite for any 2012 legislation, at least without considerable exemptions for energy-intensive sectors. The current low growth outlook, the political and economic imperative to keep and create jobs, and steeper electricity prices all constrain its options. Pretoria should be very careful before it increases taxes on, for example, smelters – whose margins are narrowing through high power, labour and other costs, and who might decide to do business elsewhere.

On the other hand, the country does see opportunities in moving towards a greener economy. Unions recently signed onto the “˜Green Economy Accord’ intending to create thousands of manufacturing jobs in renewable energy and energy-efficient products, and there is interest in the country’s tender plans for renewable energy provision. Leaders in corporate life are not necessarily opposed to carbon regulation or pricing itself. What business leaders want above all else is clarity and signals that might enable them to begin to plan for a transition to a lower-carbon economy. They also seek assurance that any emissions tax revenue will go to adaptation-related spending, not general revenue. They will be far better-placed, say, in February, once the COP-17 drama has subsided, to gauge government’s appetite for any 2012 measure directly affecting big energy producers and users.

Jolyon Ford is a senior analyst at Oxford Analytica, the global analysis and advisory firm.

Previous Article

African Arguments Editorial: Congo – elections alone ...

Next Article

Biafra Revisited: civil war leader Ojukwu dies ...

Uncategorised

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    Debate – Kenya’s politics of violence and accountability

  • Politics

    Tanzania: as constitutional reform stalls, Jakaya Kikwete risks losing his legacy – By Erick Kabendera

  • Politics

    Kenya Post-2008: The calm before a storm?

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • Africa Elections 2023: All the upcoming votes
  • “Poking the Leopard’s Anus”: Legal Spectacle and Queer Feminist Politics
  • Introducing Parselelo and a new climate focus
  • The ‘Hustler’ Fund: Kenya’s Approach to National Transformation
  • The insecurity ahead of Nigeria’s 2023 elections is unprecedented

Editor’s Picks

#EndSARSEditor's PicksNigeriaPolitics

#EndSARS: A movement finding healing six months after a massacre

“We asked to not be killed and we got killed for it.” In early October 2020, thousands of young Nigerians took to the streets in over twenty cities to protest ...
  • ongwen wives uganda LRA

    “We need to stick together”: Meet the family made up of Ongwen’s ex-wives

    By John Okot
    June 15, 2021
  • Nigeria’s tech sector needs recruits. Young people need jobs. And yet…

    By Shola Lawal
    February 10, 2022
  • Malawi’s miracle island, where fish remain plentiful despite climate crisis

    By Charles Pensulo
    April 28, 2021
  • “What this generation wants”: African authors publishing direct to the web

    By Derick Matsengarwodzi
    April 1, 2021

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu