On Saturday 8 June 2018, South Africans got a real good glimpse of what UN Sustainable Development really means, when the draft Climate Change Bill (2018) was published for public comment in the government gazzette.

It’s important to take a look at some of the definitions in the bill.

"carbon budget" means a greenhouse gas emissions allowance allocated to a person in terms of section 13, over a defined time period;

In other words, a carbon ration. A “CO2 credit”  of sorts. 

It also gives definitions for the following two important terms:

"person" means a natural person and includes a juristic person

"prescribe" means to prescribe by regulation;

Carbon Budgets

In Chapter 5, In above mentioned section 13, “Carbon Budgets”, the bill states under point 7): 

“The Minister must, by notice in the Gazette, require a person to whom a carbon budget has been allocated to prepare, submit to the Minister for approval and implement a greenhouse gas mitigation plan which describes the mitigation actions that such a person will implement to comply with the allocated carbon budget.

(8) A greenhouse gas mitigation plan must comply with the requirements, process and procedures as may be prescribed by the Minister.

(9) A person to whom a carbon budget has been allocated is obliged:

(a) To comply with the carbon budget;

(b) to implement the approved greenhouse gas mitigation plan properly; and

(c) in accordance with the methodology contained in the approved greenhouse gas mitigation plan -

(i) monitor its annual greenhouse gas emissions;

(ii) evaluate its progress towards compliance with the carbon budget;

(iii) annually report on the progress towards compliance with the carbon budget; and

(iv) in the event that such reporting indicates that the person has failed, is failing or will fail to comply with the carbon budget, to provide an explanation of measures the person will implement in order to achieve compliance.

Jail time for exceeding carbon budget

Under section 19, “Offenses and Penalties”, the bil reads,

“A person commits an offense if-

a) that person fails to prepare, submit, and implement an approved greenhouse gas mitigation plan; and

b) that person’s greenhouse gas emissions exceeds the greenhouse gas emissions allowance prescribed by that person’s carbon budget during the applicable period”

“... liable, in the case of a first conviction, to a fine not exceeding R5 million or imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, or to both such fine and such imprisonment, and in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding R10 million or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or to both such fine and such imprisonment.”

Existence tax

It’s important to realize, that people produce greenhouse gases even if you were to move into a cave and not use any modern technology. 

This is literally an existence tax, and should be resisted at all cost! This bill takes the cliché joke of “one day the government will tax us for breathing”, into the realm of reality. 

Call to action:

South Africans reading this, can take the following action to fight this unashamedly totalitarian bill:

1) Dear South Africa has launched a public participation platform (ppp) that people can use to submit and record their comment on this bill. Click here.

2) Those who are active on Facebook, can join the following group, and refer as many friends as possible there, to drive mass action against this bill. Closing date for public comment is 8 August 2018, at midnight. 

Destruction of economic freedom

What this bill proposes sounds remarkably like a system that was proposed in the UK in 2005, by David Miliband, then Secretary of State for Environment.

The plan called for a credit card system to ration the carbon use of individuals. An article in The Independent read:

“A credit card-style trading system would ensure that people pay for air travel, electricity, gas and petrol with carbon rations as well as cash...”

“Under the proposals, all citizens would be given a personal carbon allowance, based on national targets for cutting CO2 emissions.”

Could this possibly be the true goal of the biometric national ID card?

If this is the kind of system that is indeed being implemented with this bill, it constitutes pure slavery. It is nothing but buying permission to trade. A cost on top of costs, and it places a cap on the economic activity of all people.

One can only hope that South Africans will wake up in time to kill this bill.