Sasol works on 'green' strategy

Cape Town - Petrochemical giant Sasol announced on Wednesday that it is working with the state, other companies and business organisations such as Business South Africa (Busa) on a long-term strategy - which includes a carbon tax - for the mitigation of climate change.

This is in response to the National Treasury's decision to introduce the 2c/kWh levy on non-renewable electricity, announced in the February budget, only in July next year, so that it can be extended to other industries releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide, thus contributing to climate change.

Sasol spokesperson Jacqui O'Sullivan says more work is needed to have a proposal ready by early next year.

A tax on carbon dioxide emission is part of government's campaign to reduce the demand for electricity and at the same time contribute to a mitigation of climate change.

A tax such as this will have a particular impact on Sasol, since the group and Eskom are Africa's greatest emitters of greenhouse gas.

The decision to postpone the introduction of the 2% levy to July has also been taken to coincide with municipalities' financial year-ends explained the Treasury.

Apart from Eskom, which generates more than 80% of its electricity from coal, Sasol releases large amounts of greenhouse gas with its coal-to-fuel operations.

Last year Sasol released 71.4m tons of greenhouse gas. It plans to reduce this by 10% of the 2005 level before 2015.

According to the Treasury the carbon market (in which greenhouse-gas emission savings can be converted to monetary values by trading so-called carbon credits) is evolving globally.

The carbon market is already beginning to supply the necessary incentives to use resources with greater energy efficiency. Apart from a carbon tax, South Africa is looking into market-based mechanisms to encourage companies to use their energy more efficiently and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

- Sake24