Climate Change Act, 2024

This is not a court judgment but a published Act of Parliament assented to by the President on 18 July 2024 and published in Government Gazette No. 50966 on 23 July 2024. The Act was enacted to create a national legal framework for South Africa’s climate change response, including adaptation, mitigation, institutional arrangements, carbon budgets, sectoral emissions targets, synthetic greenhouse gas controls, reporting systems, and cooperative governance mechanisms across national, provincial and municipal spheres. The Act is expressly linked to section 24 of the Constitution and the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998, and is intended to support a just transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy and society while giving effect to South Africa’s international obligations, including under the Paris Agreement.

• No judicial legal issues were decided because the text is legislation, not a judgment.
• The Act itself addresses legislative policy questions including how South Africa should structure a coordinated national climate change response.
• How climate adaptation objectives, adaptation scenarios, and national and sectoral adaptation plans should be created and reviewed.
• How greenhouse gas emissions should be regulated through a national emissions trajectory, sectoral emissions targets, listed greenhouse gases and activities, and carbon budgets.
• How cooperative governance and institutional arrangements should operate between national, provincial, and municipal government and the Presidential Climate Commission.
• How existing environmental legislation, especially the National Environmental Management Act and Air Quality Act instruments, should interact with the new climate framework.

No court order was made because this is not a judgment. The legal effect is that the Climate Change Act, 2024 was enacted, assented to on 18 July 2024, published on 23 July 2024, and will come into operation on a date fixed by the President by proclamation in the Gazette.

Not applicable because there is no ratio decidendi in legislation and no court decided a dispute. The closest equivalent legislative principles established by the Act are that climate change governance in South Africa must be coordinated across all spheres of government; must be guided by NEMA principles, intergenerational equity, science-based and risk-averse decision-making, and just transition considerations; and may be implemented through enforceable mechanisms including adaptation plans, sectoral emissions targets, carbon budgets, reporting duties, offences, and appeals.

Not applicable because the text is not a judgment and contains no judicial obiter dicta.

The Act is significant because it is South Africa’s primary framework climate statute. It gives legislative effect to constitutional environmental rights in section 24, embeds climate governance within the National Environmental Management Act framework, and creates the first comprehensive statutory regime for climate adaptation, mitigation, carbon budgeting, sectoral emissions targets, and institutional coordination. It is especially important for establishing a legally enforceable architecture for a just transition, binding all organs of state, integrating climate considerations into planning and decision-making, and aligning domestic law with South Africa’s obligations under the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.