We would like to welcome the following new members: Benedict Msumba (Eqstra FlexiFleet), Amanda Botes (Urban Earth), Mari Wolmarans (Ethical Exchange), Claire Jarvis (Ethical Exchange) and Teresa Legg (The Carbon Report).
Announcements
COP 17’s Durban Platform includes a commitment by governments to adopt a universal legal agreement on climate change. This will include an agreement on how to share the available “carbon space.” The atmosphere can safely absorb a limited amount of carbon but there is not much of this space left and each country wants a piece of it.
While the South Africa business community anticipated finalisation of the mandatory GHG reporting structure under the Air Quality Act from the Department of Environmental Affairs, the Department of Energy published regulations requiring the same information but in a different format. The regulations under the National Energy Act were published on 24 February this year. It empowers the Minister of energy to request energy and GHG data from companies or industry bodies. Apart from “Data regarding volumes, prices, efficiency, type of energy and energy services used within the residential, industrial, mining, commercial, transport, agriculture and other sectors” disclosure includes “data and information describing the quantity and nature of ... greenhouse gases and related gaseous particles emitted as a result of the data provider's economic activities and processes”. For more detail refer to the regulations on the mandatory provision of energy data, Regulation no. 142 published in the Government Gazette 24 February 2012.
The relationships between the three parts of ISO 14064 and ISO 14065.
The good news is that the South African Accreditation Services (SANAS) has prioritised a work programme to accredit companies (or individuals) for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) validations and verifications. SANAS, an entity under the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), has identified accreditation of GHG verifications as a priority project.
The Agricultural sector is beginning to experience significant impacts due to climate change in the form of extreme weather events such as storms, floods and droughts as well as the frequency of heat waves.
Read more: Greenhouse Gas Accounting grows in importance throughout the Agricultural Sector
The beginning of 2012 also brought some changes to the Carbon Protocol.
The organisation has reached the stage whereby it requires a multi-skilled individual, who has a passion for climate change, to manage the innovative planned projects and lead the organisation into the next exciting phase of its development.
In parallel with the emergence of regulated or mandatory schemes relating to monitoring, reporting and verification of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), organisations outside of these schemes are now increasingly wishing to monitor and report their emissions (commonly referred to as the organisation's carbon footprint).
South Africa completed another fantastic job of hosting an integral international event in Durban during December. The situation to reach an agreement appeared dire for the majority of the conference but some encouraging outcomes materialized towards the close of proceedings.