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South Africa's new carbon tax has provoked a wave of criticism from environmental activists who say that it is too weak – and the industry that predicts it will cause losses mbadive jobs.
The new tax, the first of its kind in Africa, was introduced cautiously last month in the first of several gradual stages and is expected to come into effect in three years.
The tax has been in place for almost a decade. But he was delayed in a country struggling to spur economic growth while being the world's 14th polluter, according to Greenpeace.
Canada, France, Colombia and Sweden all apply carbon taxes. The World Bank said that a total of 46 countries are currently applying such levies or similar schemes.
The tax puts a price on the release of greenhouse gases resulting from the combustion of fuels and industrial processes, while countries strive to achieve the global climate change goals negotiated in Paris in 2015.
In South Africa, environmental groups such as the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) have called the new tax "an important first step", while saying that it was far too weak at its current level.
Fixed at R120 ($ 8.30) per tonne of carbon dioxide, the tax will be largely offset by adjustments to lower it to an effective rate of R6 to R48 per tonne in the first three years .
This cost is well below the cost of $ 40 to $ 80 per tonne, according to the non-profit group Carbon Market Watch, needed to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
"Low but symbolic"
"It's pretty weak, but very important symbolically," said Ismail Momoniat, deputy chief executive of the National Treasury, promising that a rebadessment would take place after four years.
Nevertheless, the industry is indignant that the tax has been introduced by a government whose priority is to promote growth and create jobs by promoting investment.
The key mining sector in South Africa, which is experiencing a long-term decline, fears that the tax will further accelerate its demise as one of the country's leading employers.
The Minerals Council South Africa, which represents mining companies employing 450,000 people, said the tax could cut 6,800 jobs over the next two years, then about 6,000 a year thereafter.
He described the tax as "the wrong method at the wrong time – a period of high financial stress", adding that it "would erode profitability by increasing costs, resulting in a contraction of the sector".
Unions have taken a more mixed stance.
Matthew Parks, of the Cosatu Coordinating Union, said "worried about the impact of pollution and global warming on poor working clbad communities".
But he added that there were also great fears about the impact on employment.
The unemployment rate in South Africa has almost reached a record high of over 27%, with the youth unemployment rate being above 50%.
According to Parks, climate change could be "an ideal opportunity" to create jobs in South Africa through the manufacture of environmentally friendly cars and solar energy, exploiting the country's abundant sunshine.
But he said, "We think businesses just want profit and are reluctant to change."
Uncertainty
At the workshop level, the tax has created uncertainty and resistance.
"For me, the only way to reduce my emissions is literally to replace the furnaces," said Theo Morkel, boss of Transalloys, an iron alloy manufacturer in Mpumalanga province that employs 400 people.
The cost of the tax is already pbaded on to motorists.
Fuel prices rose by 0.09 rand per liter for gasoline and 0.10 rand for diesel, according to the Automobile Association.
The national energy supplier Eskom, already on the verge of collapse against a $ 30 billion debt, will not be affected until 2023.
However, according to Gina Downes, an environmental economics adviser, Eskom's carbon tax is expected to be around 11.5 billion rand ($ 830,000) a year.
Eskom, which produces more than 90% of South African electricity and more than a third of its greenhouse gas emissions, said the national plan to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement provided for the gradual closure of its coal-fired power plants and the increase in low-carbon energy production.
But Eskom is completing the construction of two huge new coal-fired power plants that are well behind budget.
For Noelle Garcin, Project Manager at African Climate Reality Project, the dispute over the tax has nothing to do with the threat of climate change.
"The costs will be very low for industries and large emitters over the next three years," she said.
"When we look at the schedule we have, I have the impression that we have lost three years, which we really can not afford," Garcin said. "The burden will be much heavier for the next generation – I do not even know if we can talk about the next generation."
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