The Energy Research Centre (ERC) is holding a conference on the theme of “Putting a price on carbon in South Africa” in March 2010. The conference builds on discussions undertaken at a side-event and a workshop at the Climate Change Summit 2009.

Respondents to this invitation are asked to submit an abstract of a maximum of 500 words on a topic in the general realm of the role of economic instruments in mitigating climate change in South Africa.

Abstracts should be submitted via e-mail to Ms Meagan Jooste at erc-climatechange@uct.ac.za by no later than 31 August 2009. Sub-themes of the conference and topics of suggested exploration include:
• The design, implementation and institutional arrangements of individual economic instruments,
• A comparative analysis of economic instruments in South Africa and other African and developing countries,
• The responsiveness of the economy to carbon and energy prices,
• How economic instruments (both taxes and incentives) flow to energy-intensive and trade exposed sectors,
• How to design economic instruments to minimize the impacts of climate change and maximize the benefits of carbon revenues to poor households,
• How to integrate economic instruments with other policy domains, and
• The role of economic instruments in the transition to a low carbon economy.

^{_{This conference is supported by funding from the European Commission DG for Environment}}

Background

Climate change is now widely accepted by the international scientific community as the key challenge of the 21st century. In 1992 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was negotiated.

The Kyoto Protocol delineates a binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target for Annex-I (industrialized countries), of five percent below 1990 GHG emission levels over the 2008–2012 period. As a non-Annex-I country, South Africa has no binding commitment to reduce its GHG emissions by a quantifiable amount but this may change in the future.

The country’s dependence on coal-intensive energy generation does make it a comparatively large producer of GHG emissions globally. The question of
what South Africa is doing to mitigate climate change remains.Based on the best available scientific data the Long-Term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS) process
presents a set of effective mitigation options for South Africa as a basis for policy formulation as a response to the climate change challenge.

Financial markets are failing to internalize the cost of GHG emissions. As such a prominent economic instrument analysed in the LTMS was that of a carbon tax which could see
reductions relative to baseline of 12 287 Mt CO2-eq between 2003 and 2050.

Globally, carbon taxes and cap and trade market mechanisms are key instruments to mitigate climate change. At a side-event and
workshop at the Climate Change Summit 2009 in South Africa researchers from ERC, Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU), visiting leading international researchers and Genesis Analytics presented a number of scoping papers on the economic instruments used to mitigate climate change (available on the
ERC website at www.erc.uct.ac.za).

Respondents to this call for papers are invited to present topics which assess the opportunity to place a price on carbon in developing countries.
At the Climate Change Summit 2009 it was proposed that a National Climate Change Response Policy be developed which sets climate change mitigation targets. Key government departments are constantly developing and enforcing such policy targets.

It is expected that by August 2009 South Africa’s post-2012 negotiation position will be established (Policy Draft Zero).

Once the UNFCCC post-2012 negotiations in Copenhagen are complete a Green Paper is planned for publication and public comment by
April 2010.

A finalized National Climate Change Response Policy should be published by the end of 2010 with the following two years allocated to translating the policy into a legislative, regulatory and fiscal package. The conference thus presents an incisive framework to develop a basis for informed debate on
how economic policy can best mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Dates and logistics

An expert Review Committee will assess abstracts submitted and, if accepted, authors will be notified and requested to submit a paper by November 2009 for the March 2010 Conference. Selected papers will be submitted for publication in the leading international journal, Climate Policy.

The conference will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. 

For any further queries please contact Ms Meagan Jooste on +27 (21) 650 2420.

We look forward to your enlightening contributions!