Home · Solutions · Environmental & Climate
Environmental & Climate
Carbon is becoming everyone’s problem. Make it your advantage.
Carbon tax, disclosure demands and supply-chain pressure are landing fast. We help you measure your footprint, build a credible reduction pathway, and report it with confidence.
Delivered with
in the Alternative Prosperity group.
The problem
You can’t manage what you haven’t measured.
Most businesses know carbon matters now — but can’t say what their number is, what it will cost, or how to bring it down credibly.
External
The demands have arrived
Carbon Tax Phase 2 (now in effect), customer queries, and investor disclosure all want a number you can defend.
Internal
You don’t know your footprint
No baseline, no plan – and a growing worry that you’re exposed on cost and reputation.
Philosophical
It has to be real, not spin
Greenwashing is a liability. Reductions should be genuine, measured and verifiable.
Carbon shouldn’t require a science degree, or a fortune, to get right. We make your number clear, and your plan credible.
The SolveSA approach
Measure. Reduce. Report – one accountable team.
You get one accountable partner. Our own carbon platform quantifies your emissions, and our energy team delivers renewable solutions – all kept aligned to your B-BBEE and ESG goals. One brief, one plan, one point of contact.
What you get
- A robust Scope 1 & 2 baseline, with Scope 3 estimated using recognised methodologies
- A costed reduction & net-zero pathway
- Carbon Tax readiness and reporting
- Every discipline delivered by one accountable team
What’s included
Services across environment & climate
- Carbon footprint & accounting (Scope 1, 2 & 3)
- Carbon Tax Phase 2 readiness & allowances
- Decarbonisation / net-zero pathway
- Science-aligned reduction targets
- Renewable energy
- Energy efficiency assessments
- Supply-chain & product carbon
- Emissions monitoring & reporting (GHG Protocol, ISO 14064, IFRS S2)
- Environmental data for ESG disclosure
The process
How we work with you
1
Measure your baseline
We quantify your emissions on a credible, auditable basis — your starting number.
2
Build the reduction plan
A costed pathway with quick wins, renewable options and science-aligned targets.
3
Report & verify
Ongoing measurement and reporting you can put in front of regulators and customers.
The outcome
From carbon-blind to credibly on track.
Before
- No idea of your carbon number
- Exposed to Carbon Tax surprises
- Can’t answer customer ESG questionnaires
- Reduction claims you can’t back up
After SolveSA
- A defensible, reported footprint
- Carbon Tax compliance and cost management
- Confident answers for customers & investors
- A credible pathway to net-zero
Related solutions
Often paired with Environmental & Climate
Governance & ESG Reporting
Turn your carbon data into a credible, investor-ready ESG report.
Transformation (B-BBEE)
Align environmental spend with your broader transformation strategy.
Social & Consumer Education
Extend impact into communities with measurable social programmes.
Let’s talk
Find out what your carbon number really is.
Book a carbon assessment – we’ll establish your baseline and show you the fastest, most credible route to reduce and report it.
Carbon and climate, in South Africa
What does carbon and climate compliance involve in South Africa?
Four things, on different timetables. Mandatory emissions reporting to the DFFE by 31 March. Carbon tax to SARS by the end of July, at R308 per tonne from 2026. CBAM data for European customers. And voluntary but increasingly expected climate disclosure under IFRS S2.
| Obligation | Who | Deadline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse gas emissions report | Listed activities at or above threshold | 31 March | Mandatory |
| Carbon tax account and payment | Schedule 2 activities at or above threshold | Penultimate working day of July | Mandatory |
| Warehouse licence renewal | Carbon taxpayers | Annually, to 31 December | Mandatory |
| CBAM emissions data to EU customers | Exporters in six covered sectors | Ahead of their 30 September declaration | Contractual |
| IFRS S2 climate disclosure | Investor-facing reporters | No mandated date in South Africa | Voluntary |
The rate moved from R236 to R308 per tonne on 1 January 2026, a 31% increase and the largest since the tax began. The basic 60% tax-free allowance and the trade exposure allowance were both retained to 31 December 2030, and the carbon offset allowance rose to 15% for combustion emissions and 10% for process and fugitive emissions.
Common questions
Carbon and climate questions we get asked
Are we liable for carbon tax?
You are if you conduct an activity listed in Schedule 2 of the Carbon Tax Act at or above the threshold set against it. For most combustion activities that is a combined installed capacity of 10 MW thermal — a capacity test, not an emissions test, and aggregated across the site.
Two things catch businesses out. Six 2 MW boilers total 12 MW and trigger it. And several activities, including cement, iron and steel, and coal mining, carry a threshold of “none”, where any emissions are liable.
What does carbon tax actually cost, after allowances?
Much less than the R308 headline. The combined allowances are capped at 90% for combustion emissions and 95% for process and fugitive emissions, which through Phase 1 put effective rates roughly in the R6 to R47 per tonne range depending on the activity.
Which allowances you qualify for is the whole question, and it is where the modelling work sits.
What is the difference between the DFFE report and the SARS return?
The DFFE report is an emissions inventory, due 31 March, submitted through SAGERS. The SARS return is a tax account, due at the end of July, on form DA 180. They are separate obligations with separate legal bases.
They are also linked: SARS pre-populates the emissions fields on the DA 180 from your DFFE submission. Declaring different figures to SARS means substantiating the difference, and a discrepancy between the two is the most common trigger for a query.
Do we need to measure Scope 3?
Not for any South African legal obligation. You need it if you report under IFRS S2 beyond your first year, if a large customer requires supplier emissions, or if a lender asks for value-chain data.
Screening all fifteen categories once is worth doing regardless. It usually shows that a few categories carry nearly all the emissions, which tells you where measurement effort belongs and makes the exclusions defensible.
How exposed are we to CBAM?
Only if you export cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity or hydrogen into the EU. The obligation sits legally on your EU importer, but they cannot calculate it without your installation data, so it reaches you through the contract.
Since 1 January 2026 an EU importer is exempt entirely below 50 tonnes of CBAM goods a year, cumulatively across steel, aluminium, fertiliser and cement. That exempts the importer, not you — your exposure depends on your customer’s total annual imports from all origins.
Does South Africa’s carbon tax offset our CBAM liability?
Partly, in principle. Article 9 of the CBAM Regulation allows a deduction for a carbon price effectively paid in the country of origin. But the draft implementing rules require rebates, exemptions and free allowances to be netted off, and South Africa’s effective carbon price after allowances is estimated in the low single digits per tonne.
The implementing act was still in draft as at September 2026. Anyone telling you the South African carbon tax largely cancels a CBAM bill has not read it.