Some 40 representatives from the agricultural food and flower sectors in East Africa met in May to discuss the future of climate change in Nairobi, Kenya.
The main topic on the agenda was how to reduce the carbon footprint of export goods to African countries so that they would not be affected negatively with the new carbon labelling law.
Some 40 representatives from the agricultural food and flower sectors in East Africa met in May to discuss the future of climate change in Nairobi, Kenya.
The main topic on the agenda was how to reduce the carbon footprint of export goods to African countries so that they would not be affected negatively with the new carbon labelling law.
Grahamstown local Simon Taylor was invited by the International Trade Centre, who were also the hosts to the event, to attend and in so doing bring his knowledge back to South Africa and more importantly to Grahamstown.
According to an article featured in The Standard in May 2010, “carbon labelling is a scheme designed to help consumers identify products that are produced under environmentally-friendly conditions.”
Global powers have decided to put a new law into place that will change the ways in which consumers consume products or services.
The new law will hinder environmentally-unfriendly products from reaching the export market. Countries will make the moral decision and rather buy goods from countries or towns that are “green” rather than from producers that do not aid the reduction of carbon in the atmosphere.
According to Taylor “if we do not make efforts to reduce the impact of climate change by reducing our carbon emissions we will have nothing to conserve as it would have all perished because of the climate change that we are already experiencing such as the drought in the Eastern cape and Western Cape.”
This will become a problem for South Africa if all the farmers and producers of export products do not come to the party and reduce their carbon footprint.
The Eastern Cape is the second-largest chicory producer in the world as well as the largest mohair producer in the world.
If the companies exporting these goods do not show that they have reduced their carbon footprint during the manufacturing process, chances are exports will diminish with carbon labelling.
According to Taylor, farmers are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to opposing the wind farm project. The wind farm will be an alternative energy source which will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of Grahamstown.
Thus when farmers wish to export their goods, consumers will be more eager to buy goods from producers that use alternative energy sources, such as the wind farm.
Using alternative energy is not the only way in which producers can reduce their carbon footprint. Different modes of transport such as rail and sea also reduce carbon emissions.
Changing fertilisers also serves as a means to reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. There are many challenges facing third world countries like South Africa when it comes to carbon labelling.
Firstly the cost of gathering all the data which enables a company to determine its carbon footprint is a lengthy and expensive process.
Another challenge is educating of farmers about their carbon footprint and alternative energy resources. These challenges will all be addressed before the law is put into effect in 2012. So if all goes well the future as a greener world might not be as distant as you might think.
