MechChem Africa September-October 2022

Carbon emissions management essential for our future MechChem Africa talks to Eckart Zollner, head of Business Development at Economic Development Solutions (EDS), about the urgent need for action from government, industry, private enterprise and individual South African citizens to better monitor, manage and reduce carbon emissions. E DS isabespokeconsultingfirmfocusingonEnvironmental, So cial and Governance (ESG) compliance, primarily in the large scale infrastructure development andmining sectors, begins Eckart Zollner, head of Business Development at Economic almost all medium sized enterprises being completely unaffected. So as a tool for driving reduced emissions, the Carbon Tax is far too slow and ineffective,” Zollner suggests.

Citing other legislation issues, he says South African diesel fuel standards in SouthAfrica are still well belowEuroVI standards, which means that every diesel-engine vehicle in use produces higher carbon emissions than those allowed through exhaust pipes inEurope. “South Africa is still not internationally compliant, anddiesel engines are used in private and commercial generators, trucks and heavy industrial diesel plant equipment. So we are all emitting much more than we should,” he says. “We inSouthAfricaare facinghaving to transformfroma traditional coal-based economy, which is far from simple. In the coal belt areas where coal mining and power generation takes place, urbanisation has taken place with housing settlements, economic hubs and more and more people migrating to these areas to seek employment. We knowwe need to change ourworkplaces and industries for the cleaner economy, but that's not something that happens overnight. Coal is the life-blood of these communities, so coming off from the 80% coal dependency andmigrating towards a greener economy, while urgent, will have to be done gradually,” Zollner argues. The transformation process started with the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) over 11 years ago. “We startedquite rapidly, but somewhere along the line momentum was lost, which has led to even worse load shedding and electricity shortages. Fortunatelywe are engagingwith this sector again; however, due to the unpredictability of Government regarding renewable energy, the impact of these new projects will take at least 24 to 36 months to be realised. “At the same time, though, we are hearing conflicting messaging fromgovernment, with some supporting decarbonisation, while other highly ranked officials are asking whether we should use newer tech nologies to extend the life of coal-firedpower plants. This confuses the industry. We need a clear, single message and a well-developed long term plan about how we are going to reduce emissions and meet the national contributions (NDCs) we have committed to,” says Zollner. “We have to start setting ourselves targets, defining how we can reach those targets and then measuring ourselves so that, in the long term, we can drive emissions down on a step-by-step basis. This is not what we are getting from the Carbon Tax, which is an annual e-filing process, so its forgotten for 11 months of the year and then someone has toquickly fudge something. So the concept ofmeasuring,managing and reducing emissions just doesn’t happen. Our software system can assist with this management, thereby making it easier for companies to comply,” he points out. SouthAfrica is also now facing the threat of the European-imposed carbon border taxes on exports. The Europeans are demanding very lowproduct emission factors fromanything coming into theirmarkets. Because some of our industries, such as the vehicle manufacturing sector, are dependent on exports intoEurope, these regulations, could seriously impair our global competitiveness, whichwouldbe amassive disadvantage for South African manufactured products.

Development Solutions (EDS). “We help our customers to meet their compliance obligations and carbon tax reduction targets, to mitigate against risk and to promote diversification and sustainability,” he says. On the emissions compliance side, clients began seeking assistance fromEDS after the Carbon Taxwas legislated in 2019. “We have since developed a suite of unique online software systems to make carbon emissions monitoring, management and reporting easier. At that time therewas nothing really geared towards theSouthAfricanCarbonTax, sowe developed our own tools for corporate carbon taxmanagement, to help companies to accurately and reliablymonitor, record andman age their carbon emissions for tax purposes,” he continues. “The Carbon Tax thresholds are still quite high, however, so only really large industrial companies are currently paying. And there are a number of allowances that companies can use to counter any tax that becomes payable. The tax net captures very few companies, with

32 ¦ MechChem Africa • September-October 2022