Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has published the Draft National Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting Regulations in the Government Gazette for public comment.

The new regulations sought to penalise people convicted of an offence in terms of the regulations to a fine not exceeding R5-million, or imprisonment not exceeding five years.

In the case of a second or subsequent conviction, the offender would be liable to a fine not exceeding R10-million or imprisonment not exceeding ten years.  In both instances, the offender could be sentenced to both a fine and a prison sentence.

This followed the recent finalisation of South Africa’s national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory between 2000 and 2010.

GHG emissions from numerous sectors would need to be reported to a competent authority. First was the energy sector, including all fuel/petroleum and electricity-related activities, the manufacturing and construction sectors, fugitive emissions from fuels, spontaneous combustion and burning coal dumps, oil and natural gas, and any other emissions from the production of energy.

Emissions generated by industrial processes and production use would also need to be reported and encompassed minerals and chemicals production, the metals industry, nonenergy products from fuels and solvents use, the electronics industry, refrigeration and air conditioning.

Agriculture, forestry and other land use were also listed as reporting sectors, as well as waste and transport, encompassing civil aviation, cars, railways, water-borne navigation and other transport means, including pipelines and off-road.

South Africa was in the process of creating a national GHG inventory system, which would ensure that the country prepared and managed data collection and analysis, as well as all relevant information related to climate change in the most consistent, transparent and accurate manner for both internal and external reporting.

The National Inventory Unit (NIU), within the climate change branch at the Department of Environmental Affairs, would manage this national system.

Further, the reporting of GHG emissions by direct emitters would be done through the National Atmospheric Emission Inventory System (NAEIS). “Data providers are required to notify the competent authority of any changes to registration details and transfer of ownership within 14 days, and register new data providers on the NAEIS within a month of transfer of ownership of a facility,” the draft proposed.

Data providers would also need to submit their total GHG emissions to the NAEIS by March 31 every year.

“Should there be any change in the activities of the industry or sector during the reporting period, the competent authority must be notified of such changes by December 31 of each year,” the draft stated.

Monitoring and reporting would need to be completed and cover all process and combustion emissions from all emission sources and source streams and applied to individual combustion installation with a 10 MW energy capacity or more.

The draft regulations also required proper record keeping of emissions data, the verification of information collected and supplied, and on-site verification of emissions by a competent authority once every two years.