Earthlife Africa, an environmental social justice group, tells Engineering News that it believes the inclusion of the petrochemicals multinational, whose Secunda facility is the biggest global single-point carbon emitter, represents a conflict of interest.
“Sasol is a major global carbon emitter and is seeking to promote an expanded technology that is heavily carbon intensive and that will increase emissions. Its role in the delegation is to participate in agreements aimed at reducing carbon emissions, and yet its commercial interest is to maintain legislation that allows its current level of carbon emissions. It is a simple conflict of interest," says Earthlife project coordinator Tristen Taylor.
The function of the UNFCCC, and its COP 17 sitting in November, is to provide an international forum for intergovernmental efforts to tackle climate change. Its ultimate objective is the stabilisation of greenhouse gases at a level that will prevent climate interference by the global population.
The conference makes possible information sharing between various national delegations, focusing on best practices, national climate policy and infor- mation sharing, as well as the provision of financial and technological support for climate policies of developing countries.
Further, Taylor does not believe that Sasol is in an appropriate position to participate in emission reduction negotiations owing to conflicting commercial expansion interests.
“Sasol's gas-to-liquids technology implementation is in a constant state of expansion, with the commissioning of conversion facilities worldwide. “Should current legislation be amended to require considerably lower emission levels, Sasol would not receive governmental approval for new plants, based on its current model, and that is a distinct threat to its bottom line," he says. Read the full report here.
Source: by Natalie Greve, Engineering News.
