PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged the risks associated with South Africa’s transition from coal to renewables but insists the “risks of not undertaking an ambitious and just transition are far greater.”
Speaking during the virtual launch of the Oxford ‘Handbook on the South African Economy’, the President said the commitments made by South Africa to avert a climate crisis carry “significant risks”.
“These include risks to our energy security, scale of industrialisation, levels of employment and economic activity in coal-dependent communities.
“However, the risks of not undertaking an ambitious and just transition are far greater,” Ramaphosa warned.
One of the emerging risks related to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that South Africa’s key trading partner, the European Union (EU), aims to implement from January 2023, with a transitional period to either 2025 or 2026.
A recent analysis by Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies on the imposition, under CBAM, of a tax
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