South Africa is generally considered the leader on the African continent, but not always for the right reasons. While it is deliberated that SA is Africa’s economic and industrial powerhouse, it has come with a price – South Africa is by far the worst polluter and GHG (greenhouse gas) emitter on the continent.

If CO2 had significant commercial value, that is, it was used extensively by industry for a large number of purposes, then fossil fuel power plant operators might be easily convinced that capturing and selling the greenhouse gas would make more sense than letting it go into the atmosphere: If there were profits in smoke stack CO2, then they wouldn’t let it go up in, well, smoke.

South Africa's proposed carbon tax is set to act as just another tax on South Africans while inadequately addressing issues of climate change - the very problem it was designed to address. This is because the revenue generated will not be earmarked to tackle issues of climate change, rather it will simply flow into government coffers.

'Although South Africa has outlined ambitious targets to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, time is indeed running out to secure our children's future.