Country's draft climate plan 'weak'

Groups say the environment department's proposed emissions targets are inadequate

- Sheree Bega

Civil society organisations are demanding major revisions to South Africa's draft national climate commitments, arguing that they lack ambition, coherence and accountability.

They say the draft second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) fails to address the climate crisis or meet South Africa's constitutional and international obligations.

The organisations, affiliated with the Climate Justice Coalition and the Energy Governance South Africa Network, include social justice NGOs, and youth, faith-based and grassroots movements.

The department of forestry, fisheries and the environment published the draft on 30 July, setting out climate commitments for 2026 to 2030 and 2031 to 2035. Public consultation closed on Friday.

An NDC is a national climate action plan under the Paris Agreement, which commits countries to limit global warming to well below 2°C, ideally 1.5°C. Nations must submit increasingly ambitious five-year plans to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

South Africa's updated NDC will be submitted next month, ahead of COP30 in Brazil in November.

"As such, setting detailed and ambitious objectives in the document should be a key driver for broader consistency across all development planning and for policy harmonisation," the groups said.

They pointed to the Presidential Climate Commission's (PCC) draft recommendations relesed in June, which stressed the need for greater ambition and time-bound, sector-specific targets.

They say the department's proposed emissions targets are inadequate, given South Africa's high historic emissions and status as the world's 13th-largest emitter.

On mitigation, South Africa is to keep its 2021 target of 350 to 420 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, adding a new 2035 target of 320 to 380 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.