Cabinet has approved the Sectoral Emission Targets (SETs) Framework.
During a post-Cabinet media briefing on Thursday, Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, said this was in line with South Africa’s implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The agreement was signed by the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2015.
The Minister said the framework would guide the lead government department’s approach in coordinating the process towards allocating and implementing SETs with sister departments.
“The national departments’ planning instruments or Policies and Measures (PAMs) seek to mitigate emissions from the sector in line with the sectoral emissions target.
“Sectoral PAMs are critical for implementing sectoral emission targets. They will be defined and allocated as soon as the Climate Change Bill becomes law,” he said.
These, he said, would be determined for three rolling five-year periods and reviewed every five years.
Company-level carbon budgets
Cabinet in the same meeting also approved the Company-Level Carbon Budget Allocation Methodology approach for implementation.
A mandatory carbon budget system targeting high emitting companies would be implemented in 2023, said the Minister.
He said the carbon budgets system would compel high-emitting companies to adopt assigned amounts of greenhouse gas emissions as five-year commitment allocations.
The carbon budget allocation methodology sets out the scope of mandatory carbon budget implementation and details operational frameworks to be used to calculate and allocate company-level carbon budgets for the first mandatory phase and beyond. – SAnews.gov.za
