Africa:
Offsets to Cushion South African Carbon Tax

6/4/2014 8:07:44 AM Reprint | | Print |

CAPE TOWN - To curb greenhouse gas emissions, South Africa wants to put a tax on carbon emissions from big polluters.
 
The aim of making polluters pay for the carbon they pump into the atmosphere is to help South Africa, the world’s 12th highest emitter of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, transition to a low-carbon economy.

“We have one of the most carbon intensive economies in the world,” Anton Cartwright, a researcher on the green economy at the University of Cape Town’s African Centre for Cities, told IPS.

Coal-burning power plants provide close to ninety percent of South Africa’s electricity, making the economy highly carbon intensive. (END//2014)

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