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Global climate change mitigation action is hampered by systematic under-assessment of national ‘fair shares’, largely on the basis of perceived national interests. This paper aims to inform discussions centred on South Africa’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) by estimating (1) emissions reduction pathways for the country using the Climate Equity Reference Calculator (CERC) assuming a maximum 2°C aggregate warming target and (2) the likely economy-wide net mitigation costs or savings associated with reaching these pathways if known lower-cost mitigation measures, identified through the national mitigation potential analysis, are prioritised. The cumulative net savings associated with achieving the CERC ‘fair share’ emissions pathway, assuming the moderate use of low carbon power generation measures, would reach $5.3 billion by 2030. Net savings could be substantially greater reaching $46.8 billion by 2030 assuming power generation focuses on moving towards full decarbonisation. An unconditional commitment to the mitigation action implied by the ‘fair share’ emissions pathway therefore seems reasonable and prudent purely from the point of view of net country-wide savings. Only if power generation moves towards full decarbonisation would there be a reasonable chance of achieving the more ambitious CERC domestic emissions pathway. However, the significant additional cost associated with achieving the domestic emissions pathway should be conditional on international assistance. Key policy insights South Africa can only achieve its ‘fair share’ of the global mitigation effort if greater use is made of renewable energy options, and can realise significant net savings if it does so. Further emissions reductions would incur costs and require significant upscaling of the share of renewable energy and full implementation of all non-power generation mitigation measures available. Committing to this further mitigation action contingent on international finance would both strengthen the nation’s position in climate negotiations and support the provision of finance for those vulnerable developing nations that bear little or no responsibility for climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Investing in urban natural assets can leverage relatively high economic value in city economies. It is not only the case for highly developed cities, but could also be the case for rapidly developing cities. This is the key message from a case study for the City of Cape Town in South Africa as presented in this paper. It was calculated that the leverage of municipal expenditure on maintaining and enhancing ecosystems is 1.2–2 times higher than the leverage of all municipal expenditure on the City economy. Investing and maintaining a City''s natural assets or ecological infrastructure yields economically valuable services that could prove to be an important driver of value addition in a city''s economy. It is conservatively estimated that for the City of Cape Town, natural assets yield a flow of ecosystem services valued in the order of R4 billion per annum, within a range between R2 billion and R6 billion per annum. Most of this value for the City of Cape Town is created through the tourism industry, but recreation in parks, open spaces and beaches, as well as specific industries such as film-making, also benefit substantially from the services provided by well-functioning ecosystems. Buffering services to better cope with natural hazards such as coastal surges, flooding and fires in urban contexts are important services from an insurance perspective. As entities focused on service provision and as enablers of economic growth and development, municipalities in rapidly developing urban centrums have the mandate and must create the opportunity to invest adequately in natural assets to maintain a healthy flow of ecosystem services to the benefit of people living in and visiting their cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A recent environmental impact assessment of a proposed new toll road in Cape Town, South Africa raised some interesting questions, particularly with respect to the impacts of routing a road through an environmentally sensitive area. The paper discusses the challenges encountered in assessing the economic implications of this routing and how workable methodological solutions were arrived at. Our approach was to investigate the longer-term opportunity costs associated with the preferred routing. This was done through focusing on the strategic importance of the area without necessarily engaging in detailed quantification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollutants often have adverse effects on human health. This paper investigates and ranks a set of policy and technological interventions intended to reduce such health costs in the high population density areas of South Africa. It initially uses a simple benefit–cost rule, later extended to capture sectoral employment impacts. Although the focus of state air quality legislation is on industrial pollutants, the most efficient interventions were found to be at household level. These included such low-cost interventions as training householders to place kindling above rather than below the coal in a fireplace and insulating roofs. The first non-household policies to emerge involved vehicle fuels and technologies. Most proposed industrial interventions failed a simple cost–benefit test. The paper''s policy messages are that interventions should begin with households and that further industry controls are not yet justifiable in their present forms as these relate to the health care costs of such interventions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]