The two overarching informing frameworks informing social and environmental sustainability are the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). South Africa’s legislation highlights the impact that environmental factors have on human health and wellbeing, largely acknowledging the need to achieve a balance between socioeconomic development and a sustainable approach to using resources. This article highlights relevant local and international acts, policies and research on social and environmental sustainability.
The SDGs or Global Goals
The SDGs or Global Goals were introduced when member states of the United Nations (UN) adopted a new sustainable development agenda in 2015. In South Africa, a development agenda was already in process, guided by the NDP. Although closely aligned, the two agendas are not contiguous. Both aim to achieve their goals by 2030, but the globally focused SDGs were introduced three years after the NDP, which is most concerned with national challenges. The SDGs have had to be domesticated to some extent, but South Africa cannot report on all the targets due to a lack of indicators or reliable national data. The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have indicated that 74% of the SDG targets are directly addressed by the NDP, with sectoral programmes addressing 19% of the remaining targets.
Read more about South Africa’s progress in terms of these local and global frameworks in the article “Tracking South Africa’s progress against global and local development agendas“.
Relevant acts and policies
1. Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019
The Carbon Tax, which came into effect on 1 June 2019, aims to impose a tax on the carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions. The first phase, which applies to Scope 1 emitters, runs from inception to 31 December 2022, and the second phase from 2023 to 2030. Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse(GHG) emissions from company boilers, furnaces or vehicles, for example. Scope 2 emissions are indirect GHG emissions generated by steam, heat, cooling or the purchase of electricity. The Carbon Tax is one of the means by which South African plans to cut its emissions by almost a third by 2030, and reach Net Zero emissions by 2050.
2. National Treasury on Amendments to the Carbon Offsets Regulations
National Treasury has published gazetted amendments to the Carbon Offsets Regulations in terms of Section 19 (c) of the Carbon Tax Act). The Carbon Offsets Regulations set out the eligibility criteria for carbon offset projects, a procedure for taxpayers claiming the carbon offset allowance and administration of the carbon offset system.
3. The South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP)
This programme is globally unique in its emphasis on providing benefits for communities in the vicinity of projects participating in the REIPPPP. Benefits to communities are channelled through local employment quotas, community ownership in RE projects, and a portion of the revenue made by IPPs going towards development spending – socioeconomic development (SED) and enterprise development (ED).
4. Green Economy Policy Review of South Africa’s Industrial Policy Framework
This paper outlines the shift requires from industrial policy to green industrial policy that will enable South Africa to transition to an inclusive green economy, combining economic development, social progress and environmental preservation.
5. National Water Act No. 36 of 1998
This Act establishes a national water resource strategy, along with catchment management strategies. It also looks at preventing and remedying the effects of pollution.
6. National Environmental Management: Waste Act No. 59 of 2008
This Act establishes a national waste management strategy and provides national norms and standards, provincial norms and standards, and waste service standards, including the designation of waste management officers, which organs of state should prepare integrated waste management plans, and reporting on the implementation of these plans.
7. National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act No. 10 of 2004
This Act provides for the management and conservation of South Africa’s biodiversity within the framework of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998. Among other things, it focuses on the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from bioprospecting involving indigenous biological resources.
8. National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act No. 39 of 2004
This Act reforms the law regulating air quality to protect the environment by providing reasonable measures to prevent pollution and ecological degradation and to secure ecologically sustainable development while promoting justifiable economic and social development. It also provides for national norms and standards regulating air quality monitoring, management and control by government.
9. National Environmental Management Act No. 107 of 1998
This Act asserts that everyone has the right to an environment that does not harm their health or wellbeing. The State must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the social, economic and environmental rights of the population and meet the basic needs of previously disadvantaged communities. Sustainable development must ensure equality in the distribution of wealth and resources. The Act focuses specifically on pollution, ecological degradation, conservation, and integrated social, economic and environmental factors.
10. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
Section 24 of the Constitution sets out the right to an environment that is not harmful to health or wellbeing. It is government’s role to ensure that there is a sustainable balance struck between using natural resources and promoting socioeconomic development. Regulatory authorities include the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).
South African research in social and environmental sustainability
1. Climate pathways and a just transition for South Africa
The National Business Initiative (NBI) explores what a Just Transition means in South Africa and explains what Climate Pathways for a Just Transition is. There are also a number of reports available from the NBI.
2. The climate crisis: a Toolkit and Resource Pack for Funders in South Africa – Why, How, and the Role of Philanthropy
The Independent Philanthropy Association of South Africa (IPASA) has launched a toolkit and resource pack for Funders that helps them to understand the climate crisis and how philanthropy can respond. It is a reference guide that meets organisations wherever they are on their climate journey.
3. A Guide to Climate Change for South African CEOs
This National Business Initiative (NBI) report asks what global climate ambition looks like for business and how companies can work with the NBI to achieve it.
4. NACA conference 2021 – Evidence-based pathways to clean air in South Africa
The Annual Conference of the National Association for Clean Air took place from 6-8 October 2021, with the theme of ‘Evidence-based pathways to clean air in South Africa’. The conference followed the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s (DFFE) Air Quality Governance Legkotla. Sessions focused on air quality and human health, urban and industrial air quality, monitoring, air quality modelling, and air quality validation and uncertainty. The NACA awards, which recognise and reward outstanding contributions towards the cause of clean air, were sponsored by Eskom & SACNASP. The conference also recognised the best scientific papers published during the year.
5. SED initiatives
The South African Wind Energy Association highlights 36 wind projects selected as part of the REIPPPP.
6. Green skills – building capacity for a sustainability future
The Green Skills Project – a programme emerging form the Environmental Skills Planning Forum chaired by the Department of Environmental Affairs – focused on post-school green skills development, producing conceptual frameworks, training courses and a research toolkit to help employers, SETAs and other to better understand and quantify the demand for green skills.
7. National Biodiversity and Business Network
The Endangered Wildlife Trust oversees the National Biodiversity and Business Network (NBBN), which recognises the importance of biodiversity to business. Biodiversity is under threat globally and the private sector is one of the primary drivers of its degradation and loss. In 2018, the NBBN assessed the performance of all Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies and two state-owned enterprises with respect to mainstreaming biodiversity into their activities. This was undertaken to inform the Biodiversity Disclosure Project (BDP).
8. Private sector contribution to South Africa’s 2019 Voluntary National Review on Sustainable Development Goals, July 2019
The Global Compact Network South Africa (GCNSA) is part of the United Nations Global Compact, the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world. The aim of the GCNSA is to bring the private sector to work together with other stakeholders to collectively respond to the national and global challenges of poverty, inequality and environmental degradation. This report outlines interventions that South African companies should focus on to achieve the SDGs.
International research on social and environmental sustainability
1. AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s is based on content of the three Working Groups Assessment Reports: WGI – The Physical Science Basis, WGII – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, WGIII – Mitigation of Climate Change, and the three Special Reports: Global Warming of 1.5°C, Climate Change and Land, The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. The synthesis report was finalised in September 2022. It addresses climate and development futures in response to our rapidly changing climate.
2. Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalised the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, on 6 August 2021.
3. A Framework for Advancing Environmental and Social Sustainability in the United Nations System
The Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework strives to carry the institution beyond the typical safeguard measures of “do no harm” to identify ways to “do good”. In the spirit of One United Nations, the Framework takes a holistic view of the organization’s work from policy conception through programme implementation and internal operations management, providing a broader base of knowledge for smart decision-making. The initiative looks to build on the internationally agreed sustainability norms and principles of the last 30 years by adapting the best practices of environmental and social assessment procedures and management systems to United Nations System activities.
4. The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate
This paper argues that children are the worst affected by climate change, with downward trends in global yield potential for all major crops threatening food production and security, and trends in climate suitability for disease transmission becoming increasingly concerning.
5. Achieving a fossil-free recovery
This 2021 report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Global Subsidies Initiative argues that the first priority, after health and social protection during the pandemic, must be getting economies back on track in a way that is consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals and governments’ net-zero commitments. Energy plays a major role, not only because a fossil-free recovery is key to mitigating climate change, but also because it is critical for access to opportunities, jobs, mobility and welfare.