Study targets freight emissions

Based on the assumption that transport is one of the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting sectors in South Africa, the WWF has commissioned a study to ascertain the level of freight emissions in the country. According to Louise Naude, national climate change officer for the WWF South Africa, one can only find solutions to a problem if one has the facts. “And there is very little data available – with the last official inventory done in 2000,” she said at the monthly Transport Forum in Cape Town last week. “And that is very old already if one is looking at transport sector emissions, which is why we have commissioned a study to get a deeper understanding of the situation at present.” She said with South Africa being an extremely carbon-intensive economy, the government had drafted a white paper to address climate change that would see the introduction of an emission reduction target for every sector.