South Africa Proposes Carbon Tax Changes to Increase Offsets

Electricity pylons at a coal-fired power station in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

South Africa’s National Treasury has proposed changes to the tax regime to encourage companies to utilize carbon offsets and reward those that implement emissions-mitigation measures.

The continent’s most-industrialized nation burns coal to generate more than 80% its electricity and ranks among the top 20 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Carbon taxes were introduced in 2019 to encourage the use of cleaner sources of energy and reduce the nation’s environmental footprint.