ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND SAFETY AND FOODSTUFFS LEGAL UPDATE REPORT (SOUTH AFRICA)                                                  

JANUARY 2022

To download and / or print this newsletter please click on this link: Monthly SHE and Foodstuffs Legal Newsletter of what happened in January 2021

Dear Clients,

Below please find a summary of selected relevant environmental, health and safety and foodstuffs legal developments that took place during January 2022.

 

NATIONAL LEGISLATION

1) Air Quality Act

  • Methodological Guidelines for Quantification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Carbon Sequestration in the Forestry Industry

These new Guidelines were published.

Companies are to report their combustion based-, process based- and fugitive greenhouse gas emissions under the Carbon Tax Act (CTA). In addition, National Treasury (NT) introduced a carbon sequestration (“S”) component into the CTA. This allows permanent carbon dioxide (CO2) removals from the atmosphere to be used to offset against emissions from the use of fossil fuels and other fugitive emission from wood processing companies reporting and accounting under the carbon tax scheme. The CTA attempts to motivate emitting entities to change practices to reduce fossil fuel emissions and to increase sequestration associated with the land use and forestry sectors. These Guidelines aim to provide recommendations on the accounting approach to be adopted by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to include carbon sequestration from plantation forests into the annual company tax accounting process. It also proposes a supporting set of rules and methods for measuring, reporting, and verifying the associated GHG emissions and removals.

 

2) Carbon Tax Act

Besides the December 2021 changes the Act was amended yet again and the following changes were done.

Subsection 6(4) was inserted which deals with the sequestration (ie. storage) of greenhouse gases in forestry plantations and harvested wood products in respect of fuel combustion emissions declared in terms of IPCC code 1A2d for pulp, paper and print:

  • in terms of section 4(1) of the Act; or
  • increasing the carbon content of a carbon reservoir other than the atmosphere in respect of fuel combustion emissions declared in terms of section 4(2)(a).

Provided the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment confirms in writing that a taxpayer is participating in the carbon budget system a taxpayer that conducts an activity listed in Schedule 2 of the Act in the column “Activity/Sector”, and who participates in the carbon budget system from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022, must receive an additional allowance of five per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in respect of a tax period.

Various changes were made to Schedule 2 (this sets out the different thresholds and tax allowances that may be set off against listed activities or sectors), namely:

  • 1A2m (brick manufacturing)
  • 1A2n (Manufacture of ceramic products by firing in particular roofing tiles, tiles, stoneware or porcelain)
  • 2A4a (Ceramics)
  • 2A4b (Other Uses of Soda Ash)
  • 2A4d (Other (please specify) [ie. emitters have to provide information for “other process uses of carbonates” besides those listed in Schedule 2)
  • 2B10 (Other (please specify) [ie. emitters have to provide information for other processes/products listed under the “chemical industry” heading in Schedule 2)
  • 2C7 (Other (please specify) [ie. emitters have to provide information for other processes/products listed under the “metal industry” heading in Schedule 2)
  • 2G1b (use of electrical equipment)
  • 3A2i (poultry)
  • 3C1a (biomass burning in forest lands)
  • 3C4 (direct N2O Emissions from managed soils)
  • 3C5 (indirect N2O emissions from managed soils)
  • 3D1 (harvested wood products)
  • 5B (unspecified).

 

PROVINCIAL LEGISLATION

3)    Western Cape

Draft Estuarine Management Plans for various municipalities were released for public comment.

 

No other relevant provincial legislation was published during this month.

 

MUNICIPAL LEGISLATION

4)    City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality

The draft Bioregional Plan for the municipality was published for comment.

5)    Overberg District Municipality

The draft Spatial Development Framework was published for comment.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Kind regards

 

MARK DITTKE