Reversing Climate Change Starts At Home: The South African Carbon Tax And The Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement (the "Agreement") will be signed on Friday, 22 April 2016 in New York. This adds further impetus to the international response to climate change and, for the local economy, it re-emphasises the importance of South Africa's national greenhouse gas mitigation actions, including the carbon tax.

Paris Agreement - entry in force

If 12 December 2015, the day on which negotiations on the Agreement were concluded, will go down in history as the date on which humanity finally took the threat of climate change seriously enough to warrant a comprehensive (if still flawed) global response, then 22 April 2016 will likely run a close second in terms of significance. On Friday (22 April 2016), the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, will convene a high-level signing ceremony of the Agreement in New York to mark the official commencement of the steps required to implement the future climate change legal regime. At the last count, some 156 countries, including all of the world's largest emitters (save the Russian Federation) have indicated an intention to sign.

After 22 April 2016, the Agreement will be open for signature in New York until 17 April 2017 and will enter into force when at least 55 country Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("UNFCCC"), together representing at least 55% of global emissions, have ratified, accepted or approved the Agreement or acceded thereto. The timing of the Agreement's coming into operation is important because the operation of the Kyoto Protocol (the Agreement's predecessor and part of the suite of international climate change law, including the UNFCCC), was subject to the same pre-conditions (ratification, acceptance, approval or accession of 55 countries, together representing at least 55% of global emissions). Given the state of international economics and geopolitics of the time (1997 to 2005) it took eight years for Kyoto to be brought into operation. The period was marked by waxing developing country greenhouse gas emissions and a concomitant waning in the political will of developed countries to comply with their Kyoto-enshrined obligations to curtail industrial greenhouse gas emissions. These geo-political and economic factors ultimately led to a breakdown in the Protocol's approach to greenhouse gas mitigation and spurred concern over weakening international climate response and ultimately, to the revival of ambition that drove the successful negotiations on the Agreement.

Global climate change response

In a clear...