'Polluters are derailing green policy'

A new report points fingers at mining and fossil fuel giants for successfully blocking South Africa's energy transition for 20 years

- Sheree Bega

South Africa's largest corporate polluters have worked persistently over the past two decades, in public and in private, to derail an effective climate policy response by the government, according to non-profit shareholder activism organisation Just Share.

The group has released a report which sets out in detail the 20-year history of industry interventions in climate regulatory processes. It focuses on the Carbon Tax Act and the Climate Change Act, both of which are foundational to the country's climate response and should require significant action from business.

"Various aspects of our work ... over the past five years have strongly indicated that business was influencing the evolution of climate policy," Emma Schuster, a senior climate-risk analyst at Just Share, said at the launch of the report. "We wanted to understand the degree of that influence and establish an evidence-based account of its impact."

She said the two Acts have been "the targets of persistent industry intervention". Just Share used corporate submissions on legislative processes and records of industry's private meetings with the government, which were largely obtained via requests under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

This showed how industry interventions, predominantly via Sasol Limited and industry associations Business Unity South Africa and the Minerals Council South Africa, have achieved significant regulatory concessions and extensive delays, which have "substantially compromised" the effectiveness of the Carbon Tax Act and the Climate Change Act.

"... What is actually striking is how much we can't see, especially when it comes to the bilateral meetings between government and high-emitting companies, which remain hidden from public view and knowledge, unless specific requests for this information are made. Even then, we have no idea whether we are getting the full picture," Schuster said.