The government is promoting broader discussion on “market-based instruments” for “incentivi- sing” or “disincentivi-sing” environmental performance, the department of environmental affairs and tourism said this week.
This includes looking at the concept of a “Green Budget” as mooted by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel early during his budget speech.
Blessing Manale, spokesperson for the department of environmental affairs and tourism, said government’s tools needed to broaden to “what corporates can do voluntarily to minimise their impact on the environment and yet be able to still exceed a financial bottom line”.
Reports surfaced two weeks ago that the department of minerals and energy was considering introducing a green tax on sports utility vehicles (SUVs). But the department of minerals and energy chief director of clean energy, Sandile Tyatya, told the Mail & Guardian that no green tax was being considered at the moment to end South Africans’ love affair with SUVs.
“That initiative has to come from the department of environmental affairs and tourism as a green tax has definite environmental connections,” he said.
Manale said: “It is also about government departments looking into the sector they regulate and asking what can I do to make an industry in our sector more environmentally responsible and it’s about consumers also saying ‘we will buy goods and services only from such companies’.”
He said the discussion about the green budget would consider increased allocations for environment issues to improve compliance, enforcement and monitoring. The green budget would be able to set user fees, levies and administrative fees. “Fiscal incentives” to improve environmental outcomes also will be looked at in the green budget, Manale said. But green taxes would have to be investigated properly, he said.
Manale said no specific taxes — such as taxing the use of SUVs — were under consideration.
“Government will have to broadly consider such a tax and other instruments … which may have both pros and cons on issues like attracting big investments by companies which strongly support corporate environmental responsibility.”
He said areas where green taxes could be investigated included energy efficiency, water use, waste disposal, air quality impact, soil usage and the impact on biodiversity.
Two weeks ago the department of minerals and energy’s director of energy efficiency, Elsa du Toit, told a media briefing her department would approach the treasury to introduce green levies on fuel-guzzling cars. Environmentalists welcomed the idea of a green tax, while economists were less enthusiastic.
Du Toit said “market forces” were not having the desired effect and that punitive measures would have to be investigated to get consumers to become more energy efficient.
“Experiences worldwide have shown that the only way to enforce changes in behaviour is through punitive measures,” she said, adding that she was outraged when she heard the Hummer was coming to South Africa.
But Tyatya said the department was trying to encourage people to become more energy efficient through publicity campaigns in which consumers received tips on what cars to drive and how to increase their mileage. He urged South Africans to switch to smaller cars.
Statistics show that large SUVs consume up to twice as much fuel as hatchbacks, with SUVs’ energy efficiency at only 25% compared with 33% for hatchbacks. Carbon dioxide emissions of SUVs approach 9 000kg, compared with 4 500kg for lighter cars.
South Africa has one of the worst energy efficiency records in the world. A Worldwide Fund for Nature trade and investor adviser, Peet du Plooy, says South Africa’s economy is five to 10 times less carbon-efficient than the United States, United Kingdom or Japan.
But Tyatya believes that South Africa is getting better and that the communication of good practices is working. He said the department of minerals and energy wants to cut consumption patterns by 12% before 2015. This includes a 15% reduction in energy consumption in the industrial, mining and power generation sectors and a 9% decrease in the transport sector.
Du Plooy, who welcomes the idea of a green tax, said South Africa’s carbon dioxide production doubled between 1980 and 2004.