{"id":63971,"date":"2024-04-08T17:17:16","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters"},"modified":"2024-04-08T17:36:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:36:57","slug":"big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters","title":{"rendered":"Big win for one of South Africa\u2019s biggest air polluters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Sasol has won a major battle against air quality regulators, allowing it to tackle its emissions targets through alternative processes that deviate from South Africa\u2019s established regulations.<\/p>\n

In July 2023, the National Air Quality Officer (NAQO) refused an application from Sasol, in terms of the Minimum Emission Standards (MES), to regulate its emissions on a load basis instead of a concentration basis.<\/p>\n

In simple terms, regulations require groups like Sasol to limit the concentration of sulphur dioxide emitted by their operations. However, Sasol is now able to address its emission targets by cutting its load (ie, the number of boilers operating) instead.<\/p>\n

This applies to Sasol\u2019s Secunda operations, which are already on a 10-year postponement for the targets, set to end in March 2025. Instead of meeting the concentration of SO2 targets, the group applied to have its targets determined by limiting the load from its 17 boilers.<\/p>\n

NAQO said it was not empowered to grant permission for this change, dismissing Sasol\u2019s application, which the group took on appeal.<\/p>\n

Last week, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy upheld the appeal and set aside the NAQO\u2019s decision \u2013 allowing Sasol to apply load-based limits from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2030.<\/p>\n

Sasol previously said it would have to wind down its Secunda operations if the appeal was not granted.<\/p>\n

Responding to the victory, the group said that it would engage with the minister to finalise the regulatory requirements for the decision to take full effect, including having its atmospheric emission license changed accordingly.<\/p>\n

Activists not happy<\/p>\n

Non-profit shareholder activism organisation Just Share, which was an interested and affected party in the appeal decision before the Minister, said that the decision made a mockery of South Africa\u2019s emission regulations.<\/p>\n

It added that the upholding of the appeal would result in emissions significantly above the permitted by the MES, which is already weaker than comparative standards worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe negative air quality and health impacts of these emissions are significant,\u201d said Just Share.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision means that the government has permitted a private company to set its own pollution limits, making a mockery of pollution laws and constitutional rights, and of any claim by the government to take public health seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the appeal hearing, Just Share\u2019s expert said that compliance with the MES would reduce premature deaths and negative health impacts by between 40% and 60%, while Sasol\u2019s proposed limits, even by April 2030, would only reduce the impacts by 5% compared to Sasol\u2019s 2022-2023 emissions.<\/p>\n

Granting Sasol\u2019s appeal will result in roughly 50-130% higher negative impacts than MES compliance, the group said.<\/p>\n

Sasol\u2019s emissions have often been a point of contention with environmentalists and investors.<\/p>\n

In a report by Carbon Majors, the Sandton-based company was named as one of the 57 companies worldwide directly responsible for 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions from 2016 to 2022.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Sasol has won a major battle against air quality regulators, allowing it to tackle its emissions targets through alternative processes that deviate from South Africa\u2019s established regulations. In July 2023, the National Air Quality Officer (NAQO) refused an application from Sasol, in terms of the Minimum Emission Standards (MES), to regulate its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-63971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nBig win for one of South Africa\u2019s biggest air polluters - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sasol has won a major battle against air quality regulators, allowing it to tackle its emissions targets through alterna ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big win for one of South Africa\u2019s biggest air polluters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sasol has won a major battle against air quality regulators, allowing it to tackle its emissions targets through alterna ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-08T17:17:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-08T17:36:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/04\/sm_1712585004.776649.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Big win for one of South Africa\u2019s biggest air polluters\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-08T17:17:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-08T17:36:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters\"},\"wordCount\":495,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/04\/sm_1712585004.776649.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/big-win-for-one-of-south-africas-biggest-air-polluters\",\"name\":\"Big win for one of South Africa\u2019s biggest air polluters - 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