Pretoria: The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr. Dion George, has officially published South Africa’s 9th National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, providing estimates of the current emissions levels. “An accurate, complete, and updated greenhouse gas emissions inventory is a good foundation for effective mitigation responses,” the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said.
According to South African Government News Agency, the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report (NIR) was published in Gazette Number: 52067 on Friday, 7 February 2025. It encompasses data from 2000 to 2022 and will be included in the First Biennial Transparency Report submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
South Africa is required by the UNFCCC to provide a national inventory that estimates anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), by sources and removals by sinks, on a gas-by-gas basis and in units of mass. Th
e 9th NIR is compiled following the standard National Inventory Report format, as per the Convention Reporting Guidelines.
The Republic of South Africa ratified the UNFCCC in 1997 and is obliged under articles 4(1)(a) and 12(1)(a) of the Convention to prepare and report on national greenhouse gas emissions and removals to the Conference of the Parties (COP). The Convention aims to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system.
The inventory report primarily supports informed policy and decision-making on viable climate change mitigation response measures for South Africa. This is aimed at achieving a transition to a lower carbon economy and a climate-resilient society, as envisioned by the National Development Plan (Vision 2030) and the National Climate Change Response Policy (2011).
The National Climate Change Response Policy, approved in October 2011 and published as a White Paper, aims to manage inevitable climate change
impacts effectively through interventions that enhance South Africa’s social, economic, and environmental resilience and emergency response capacity. The 9th National GHG Inventory Report is available online for further information.