Effective carbon emission control strategies needed

verifiable action on limiting Zimbabwe’s carbon footprint, low as it is, or be forced to care for the environment.
Such efforts may represent initiatives to offset carbons from polluting firms, which they could be incentivised for. If voluntary actions prove difficult, other options to ensure compliance can be pursued. The carbon tax currently levied on the automobile industry could be expanded to target economic sectors already mentioned, plus others. Though this tax may sound extreme vis-a-vis the country’s low emission levels, it remains an option. These strategies and more, if implemented effectively, may be very useful for designing a national environment management regime capable of delivering sufficient climate change response action.

To be effective, similar environmental policies must ensure mandatory reporting from companies, providing periodic updates on progress made towards limiting emissions, and management of other resources such as water and land. Research also shows that policies with flexible designs, which provide companies with choices on how to achieve certain environmental targets could be effective in reducing environmental degradation, that feeds into the cycle of climate change. Several of these factors are lacking in Zimbabwe, despite the existence of an Environment Act that targets to enforce sustainable environment management practices at both individual and corporate level.

Numerous firms still cause widespread pollution in its different forms and get away with it. If caught, the fines meted out are a pittance, they don’t do enough to discourage environmental harm. Giant beverage maker Delta, together with other firms, was this year fined just US$5 000 each for water pollution. The biggest challenge may be that of lack of sector-defined emission data. When available, it would be easy to effect traceable limits of carbon emissions on companies. Carbon markets expert Mr Canicious Mushavi said it is crucial to have a friendly environmental strategy in place even when the country’s overall carbon emissions were within fair limits for a developing nation. He said corporates should be encouraged “to invest in carbon offsets or climate friendly projects while reducing emissions up until a time that Government and all responsible stakeholders see the need to pass legislation that makes it mandatory to offset carbon. But there would have to be a cap system on the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted.”

Limiting greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, will minimise the impact of climate change and global warming on people and the earth. Scientists blame these gases for causing the rapid increase in the earth’s surface temperatures, extreme weather conditions such as droughts, floods, heat waves and cold. Global food security has also come under severe stress from climate change, especially in Africa where hunger and famine are widespread. Several people have died of famine in Somalia this year, millions of others are starving.

There was an opportunity the carbon tax could be extended to cover sectors such as mining, said Eng Norbert Nziramasanga, an energy expert, but it would need to be administered efficiently and properly for it to be effective. “If the tax is extended to other sectors, there is need to identify the measures that the sectors can take to reduce emissions,” he said.
“In the mining sector, for example, emissions are from fuel combustion as well as from mineral processing such as conversion of limestone to lime or cement or the extraction of coal where the trapped methane and carbon dioxide are released. Mining companies could reduce waste and improve mineral recovery depending on how the tax is applied.” Mr Nziramasanga added: “It is also important to build in some kind of target so industry has an idea of the expected performance. Once the expectations are agreed and communicated to industry a tax could then be instituted as both an incentive and penalty. What we need to build into the targets are local benefits such as fuel efficiency, mineral recovery efficiency and the general protection of the environment hence the carbon tax would be structured to match these objectives. The Environmental Management Act has all the legal elements but just needs the technical instruments to operationalise the Act.”

Carbon emissions in Zimbabwe are not high, but they are happening. Record keeping Effective carbon emission control strategies needed happening. Record keeping is poor, with no ready emissions records on a sector by sector basis. This makes the job of emission regulation tough and yet it needs to be done. According to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre of the US, Zimbabwe produced 31 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in 1903, mainly from burning fossil fuels and production of cement. This figure does not include emissions from land use, agriculture and deforestation. By 2006, the country’s carbon emissions had reached 3 022 metric tonnes, due to increased industrialisation. The highest emitting year was 1994 with 5 124 metric tonnes released while steep emissions started being noticed since the late 1960s to date.

Most of the pollution in the world from greenhouse emissions takes place in the US, China, UK, Japan, France, Canada, Australia and Europe. Russia, India and Brazil emit badly. Africa represents only a small fraction of all greenhouse emissions in the world, producing just under 4 percent. Moreover, most of Africa’s emissions come from Libya, South Africa, the Seychelles, Reunion and most of North Africa. Over the past 60 years, Africa’s greenhouse emissions have risen 1 200 percent to 311 million metric tonnes in 2008 mostly due to industrialisation, according to UN statistics. Yet, the damage from climate change has been felt more on the continent than anywhere else. While Zimbabwe’s emissions remain low, a suite of integrated measures is needed to ensure the country does not depart from the path of sustainable development.

To achieve this, Mr Mushavi suggested the need for increased climate change awareness, as well as implementation of effective carbon emission and environmental control strategies. He said it is important to “start building capacity in various sectors and create a climate change agenda or policy that can be corporately adopted and adhered to. Regulation is fundamental and lines will have to be drawn on who does what, where and how. There is need to develop a system which makes it not only profitable to be involved in sustainable development projects but also worthwhile,” said Mushavi.

God is faithful.