Commitment to climate change must reflect in country's laws
The Green Connection says President Cyril Ramaphosa's commitment to addressing climate change can only be tested through the type of legislation that's enacted.
On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government has increased the number of financial pledges for the move to greener technology from R170 billion to almost R240 billion.
Ramaphosa delivered his State of the Nation Address in Cape Town.
He said the government has also decided to establish a Climate Change Response Fund in response to severe weather conditions affecting parts of the country.
The organisation's Lisa Makaula said it is concerning that there is legislation on the table that could jeopardise these efforts.
“In as much as he tried to address our climate change issues, we still fell like the president didn’t really touch base on some of the legislations that are actually looking into promoting fossil fuel expansion.
"That raises a lot of concern to us, which is the Upstream Petroleum Development Bill. We really hope that this piece of legislation won’t be passed down because it promotes acceleration of fossil fuels and as a country we really need to meet our climate agreements. This bill doesn’t move in line with the agreements that we made, which is to reduce our carbon emission by 2050."
South Africa is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world and the worst sulphur dioxide polluter on the planet.
The emission can largely be attributed to the country’s reliance on coal to produce almost 80% of our electricity.
ALSO READ:
