South Africa: The government has introduced a carbon tax of around US$8/t for carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions. The carbon tax will initially only apply to scope 1 emitters in the first phase. The first phase will be from 1 June 2019 to 31 December 2022, and the second phase from 2023 to 2030. Large-scale tax-free emission allowances from 60 – 95% will be provided in the first phase. Industries such as cement or iron production will benefit from a basic threshold of 70%.
A review will be held before the second phase starts to measure progress. The treasury reinforced that the introduction of the carbon tax would not raise electricity prices due to tax breaks for renewable energy sources and credits for existing generation capacity.
