South African Climate Action Network

While all countries contribute to climate change, the extent to which they each contribute differs enormously. The wealthy industrialised nations are responsible for emitting a far greater amount of greenhouse gases than the poor developing nations. Countries such as the USA have far higher per capita emissions (national rate of emissions per person) than any African country. Industrialised countries are responsible for emitting most greenhouse gases currently in the atmosphere, where CO2 stays for up to 100 years. This historical responsibility is sometimes referred to as part of the ‘ecological debt’ that countries of the industrialised ‘North’ owe to those in the developing ‘South’.

The different levels of responsibility for accelerating global warming are recognised under the United Nations, through the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. This principle proposes that, while all countries should act to prevent damage to the atmosphere, developed countries should take the lead.

Nonetheless, emissions in both developed and developing countries are steadily increasing. Within the developing countries, the unrivalled example is China, which has an economic growth rate of around 10%. South Africa is one of the biggest per capita emitters, accounting for between 1 and 1.5 % of total global emissions – more than Brazil, which has four times more people, and almost as much as the UK, which has an economy 3.6 times the size of SA. The reason for this is that coal is the source of most of our energy supply, including about 92% of our electricity. Our liquid fuels are derived from coal as well as imported oil and many of our industries are energy intensive and use inefficient outdated processes.