Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: The Energy Intensive Users Group of Southern Africa (EIUG) has actively engaged with energy transition legislation, and expressed support for the transition towards renewables. However, it appears to have limited transparent engagement on climate legislation and regulations.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: EIUG does not appear to explicitly support the Paris Agreement, the need for government regulation to respond to climate change, or the need for GHG emissions reductions in line with IPCC science.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: EIUG appears to have limited transparent engagement on climate-related regulations. EIUG signed a joint statement with other South African industry associations in September 2022, expressing their positions on the South African carbon tax proposals under the South African Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB). In the statement, EIUG supported the extension of phase 1 of the tax to 2023, called for lower tax rates from 2023-25, supported introducing free allocations and subsidies up to 2030, and advocated for a delay in increasing the carbon price until post-2035.
Positioning on Energy Transition: EIUG has overall engaged positively on energy policy in consultation with the South Africa government. In a January 2023 Mining Weekly article, CEO Fanele Mondi supported the aggressive roll-out of rooftop solar in the commercial and residential sectors in South Africa. Further, in a May 2021 consultation response to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, the organization appeared to support the integration of wind and solar energy into the South African energy mix, and supported the Integrated Resources Plan and its provisions for own-use renewable energy deployment. In the same consultation response, EIUG supported increased ambition in the threshold limit for generation facilities, which facilitates the generation of energy separate from Eskom, South Africa’s major energy provider. The legislation particularly supports the development of renewable energy facilities, and EIUG successfully advocated to increase the limit on generation from 1MW to 100MW following consultation. In a July 2021 Engineering News article, EIUG CEO Fanele Mondi also appeared to support the decarbonization of South Africa’s energy sector, and appeared to show general support for legislation to support this transition.