Keketso Job Motjuwadi

South Africa ranks 14^th in the world in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Its nationally determined contribution to emissions reduction has been highly criticised and deemed inadequate. The South Africa government points to its overriding priorities of eliminating poverty and eradicating inequality for its contribution. 

The Introduction of this dissertation provides a brief background into the origins of climate science reporting on the effects of GHG emissions. It then presents the state of South Africa’s GHG emissions levels and poverty percentage. Carbon Pricing is introduced as a potential means for South Africa to effectively reduce its GHG emissions and alleviate existing poverty. 

The Literature Review defines Carbon Taxes and Emission Trading Schemes and categorises common revenue use methods. The Literature Review also identifies the definition of poverty used in the dissertation and reviews methods and tools for assessing poverty alleviation strategies.

The Methodologysection details the data collection approachesused along with the qualitative, quantitative and systems dynamic assessment tools used to analysethe selected Carbon Pricing approaches.

The Results and Discussionsection describes and analyses the five selected implemented Carbon Pricing approaches: theUnited States Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the California Cap-and-Trade (CaT) Programme, the Canada Federal Fuel Charge, the Colombia Carbon Tax, and the South Africa Carbon Tax.TheRGGI and California CaT programme most effectivelyreduce their GHG emissions.  Forecast models for Colombia and South Africa indicatethat theirapplied carbon taxes will notsignificantly reduce their GHG emissions. In terms of poverty alleviation,the California CaT programme presents as the bestholistic approach due tothecomprehensive, systems dynamic use of its revenue.

TheConclusion states that Carbon Pricing is an effective climate policy whose effectiveness is enhanced when working in collaboration with other emissions reduction actionsandpolicies that can be financed from theCarbon Pricing revenue generated. The combination of short-term, cash-in-hand-benefits and long-term resilience planning is found to be the mosteffective systems dynamic form of povertyalleviation.