http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=156178

Analysts say the document has a firm eye on mitigating any possible negative effect on jobs

WATER and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa 's new climate change response policy, to be gazetted by tomorrow, has been welcomed as a balanced and thoughtful document that has a firm eye on mitigating any possible negative effect on jobs.

It is expected that part of the short-term effect of the carbon tax and "budgets" recommended in the white paper - already approved by the Cabinet - would be job cuts in some sectors.

Deloitte's sustainability and climate change director, Duane Newman, said on Friday he was glad to see the white paper acknowledged SA could lose jobs in battling and adapting to climate change. Its proposed "sector job resilience plans" were an "interesting concept" .

Democratic Alliance environmental affairs spokesman Gareth Morgan said while it was good the white paper suggested a wide range of departments would be involved in implementing the policy, the government did not have a good record in maintaining policy coherence and monitoring implementation would be critical.

Because SA's economy is "emissions-intense", the document proposes a carbon "budget" for various economic sectors, arguing this would allow for the flexibility needed . Despite being a mid-sized economy, SA is the world's 13th-highest greenhouse gas emitter. It has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, if given aid to do so.

World Wide Fund for Nature climate change programme manager Richard Worthington said the proposal of carbon budgets should "prompt the kind of honest discussion that we haven't had to date on (which sectors should pay the most)", an essential debate because SA would start to lose international business because it was a carbon- heavy economy.

Mr Newman said it was reassuring the document had a "balanced approach" to using financial "mechanisms" to promote greenhouse gas emission reductions.

But a business leader, who asked to remain anonymous, said there was private sector concern there were more sticks than carrots in the government's plan, and brought out the perennial argument against a carbon tax - that the Treasury would likely not ring-fence the revenue generated.

Trade and Industry Policy Strategies sustainable growth programme manager Peet du Plooy said the tax was more an incentive to change than a revenue source . "It's not a greedy government trying to grab revenue, it's fixing a market failure (in that greenhouse gases have not been a cost for industry)," he said.