LETTER: Busa’s views on climate change astonish

I refer to your editorial opinion — “Climate report underlines what SA can and must do,” August 11. Those who invoke the concept of a just transition as an excuse for delaying steep emissions reductions need to either improve their understanding of climate change, or of justice. Or they’re hiding their own short-term vested interests behind those most vulnerable to transformational change, even as they put us all at greater risk.

Is there any other explanation for Business Unity SA (Busa) taking the position (announced ahead of the launch of the 2021 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that SA is entitled to — and should aim to — emit up to 440 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030, when the most recent analysis by the Climate Equity Reference Project of SA’s “fair share” of the available global carbon budget, considering our development status, would require emissions in a range up to 372 metric tonnes in 2030?

Richard Worthington,Westdene

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