South African carbon emissions in the global context

Hortgro Sustainability and Natural Resource Manager Nitasha Baijnath-Pillay compares South Africa’s carbon emissions with global contributions.

There are many kinds of footprints. A knowledge footprint visualises a person’s or organisation’s expertise, used to capture and share knowledge. It connects expertise to profiles using graphs and charts. This differs from a “carbon footprint,” which measures environmental impact, and a “digital footprint,” which monitors online data. We all possess each of these footprints.

When we discuss carbon footprints, it’s startling to realise that every resource we use has a carbon impact – from the possessions in our homes to the services we avail of. Each moment of awareness has become much more significant to me. If you want to find out your personal carbon footprint, let’s have a chat.

This month, I attended a carbon footprinting course ahead of our upcoming webinar on the same topic, scheduled for next week. The course provided many valuable insights. What stood out was that SA contributes or pollutes 499,016 kilotons of CO2e emissions, which is the total for all of Africa combined, BUT… this remains less than 1% of the GLOBAL CO2e emissions. So, why does SA take carbon footprinting and emissions reduction so seriously?

Here’s why: Globally, we are at the forefront of a climate crisis, with many countries experiencing severe impacts, including extreme weather, rising sea levels, and threats to food security. This critical moment requires immediate, strategic action, including reducing emissions and building resilience, to avoid catastrophic consequences.

We export more than 46% of our South African deciduous fruit to 86 countries worldwide. Some importers, such as the EU and the UK, are taking the climate crisis very seriously and are requiring all retailers and suppliers to shift their shelves towards more carbon-neutral or sustainable products now. Our retailers and markets require compliance with their strict environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. Although we contribute less than 1% of global CO2e emissions, we must move towards more sustainable agricultural practices because our markets demand it. It is increasingly important for our producers to adapt to climate change by adjusting farming practices to account for climate and environmental factors.

**CO2e means carbon dioxide equivalent. It is a metric used to measure greenhouse gas emissions. It enables comparison of different gases based on their global warming potential (GWP) by converting them to equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide. For example, one tonne of methane has a CO2e of 28 tonnes because it has 28 times the warming potential of 𝐶𝑂2 over 100 years.