{"id":807372,"date":"2025-01-21T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=807372"},"modified":"2025-01-21T09:34:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T07:34:49","slug":"new-law-can-wreak-havoc-among-south-african-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/807372\/new-law-can-wreak-havoc-among-south-african-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"New law can wreak havoc among South African businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s new Climate Change Act can wreak havoc among South African businesses and significantly stifle economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 23 July 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Climate Change Bill into law, setting out a national climate change response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the executive and the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) welcomed the new act, saying it is a big step for South Africa to help the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa explained that the act would help to align policies to influence South Africa\u2019s climate change response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law also aims to enhance South Africa\u2019s ability and capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa said this will be done while reducing the risk of job losses and promoting new job opportunities in the emerging green economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dion George, welcomed the Climate Change Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The President’s signing of the climate change bill into law marks a significant milestone in our nation’s commitment to addressing climate change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe act sets out a national climate change response, including mitigation and adaptation actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the bill constitutes South Africa’s fair contribution to the global climate change response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This legislation provides a comprehensive framework for climate action across all our society and economy,” George said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) also welcomed the Climate Change Act, saying it sets out the legal mandate for countrywide climate change response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt enables the alignment of South Africa\u2019s climate change response policy and actions, including mitigation and adaptation actions,\u201d the PCC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It highlighted that the act clearly instructs every state organ to review and, if necessary, change its policies to align with the new legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the act enables the development of an effective climate change response and a long-term transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big impact on business<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Sakeliga’s Piet le Roux and Russell Lamberti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the ministers and climate change organisations welcomed the Climate Change Act, business organisations have warned that it can have negative effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these organisations, Sakeliga, warned that the new act could disrupt the business world and cause problems for governmental institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakeliga chief economist Russell Lamberti said the Act would create a hyper-bureaucracy over what can be produced in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamberti said the legislation envisages an unfathomable level of bureaucratic and regulatory complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The onerous conditions go beyond the additional work required by businesses. The state will also need to perform a tremendous amount of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It required intense reporting from municipal and provincial governments on their green energy policies and how many emissions they produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering that the state barely functions, this additional reporting burden will be a step too far for most government branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf fully implemented, it will throw additional sand in the gears of the government and businesses,\u201d Lamberti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that regulations must now be produced on top of the legislation, creating tremendous uncertainty about what the final version will look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakeliga\u2019s chief executive, Piet le Roux, added that the Act prescribes a system for dividing the economy into categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each category will be given a carbon quota, and each business in that category must apply for a slice of that carbon quota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShould a business exceed its carbon quota, it will be fined. If it uses less than its quota, it can be taken away and given to another business,\u201d Le Roux said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more concerning is that if a new business wants to enter a category, it will need to see if enough carbon quotas are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will create a massive fight, where big and small businesses turn on each other and businesses of the same size fight against each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamberti added that the impact of the Climate Change Act has been underreported and that businesses should take note of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is going to take a few years to play out. Get this on your radar. It will bubble to the surface in the coming quarters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s new Climate Change Act can wreak havoc among South African businesses and significantly stifle economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":771982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[21446,19796,1293,20861,21448,21447,14851],"class_list":["post-807372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-climate-change-act","tag-climate-change-bill","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-dion-george","tag-piet-le-roux","tag-russell-lamberti","tag-sakeliga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807820,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807372\/revisions\/807820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}