“Honourable House Chairperson,
The ACDP notes that this Bill seeks to develop an effective climate change response and a long-term, just transition to a low-carbon economy.
The ACDP commits to reducing harmful toxins and gasses, to restoring our ecosystems, air and waterways that have been contaminated by pollutants. We commit to protecting our endangered wildlife, flora, and fauna, because we understand that this is our inalienable mandate, as custodians of our planet.
What the ACDP will not commit to, is the hypocrisy that the ruling party seems blind to. Much of the pressure to develop legislation regarding greenhouse gas emissions, comes from the developed world, who during their period of industrialisation paid scant regard to our environment, and still continue to emit the lion’s share of pollutants. Now they seek to negate the industrialisation of developing nations by weaponizing the climate, through legislation.
The European Union, as an example, will introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a carbon border tax on embedded GHG emissions of carbon-intensive products imported into the EU. Simultaneously, they ask SA to shut down coal powered electricity stations, while hypocritically, our coal exports to the EU have increased by over 720% recently. $8.5 billion was pledged for the Just Energy Transition in South Africa. To please the masters that pull the finance strings, the ruling party decommissioned the Komati coal fired power station, one of the most stable and efficient electricity power stations in South Africa, and that, during severe loadshedding. The USA has 220 coal-fired power stations, while India has 285. China, with 3092 coal-fired power plants, built two coal power stations per week, last year. South Africa has 14 coal power stations, an energy crises, high unemployment, poverty, and inequality.
This Bill gives the Minister almost unfettered power to, among others, make regulations in relation to the management of climate change response, including the determination, review, revision, compliance with and enforcement of an allocated carbon budget.
We must never succumb to the pressure from the unelected global elites like the WEF, who threaten another lockdown, using climate change as a pretext. The ACDP calls on this house to place South Africans and our economy first. We must have a balanced energy mix, using our abundant coal and fossil fuels, for the benefit of the unemployed and indigent among us, and do so responsibly, using clean coal technology.”
-ENDS-
