National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, 2004 (Act No. 39 of 2004)RegulationsNational Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting Regulations, 20161. Definitions |
In these Regulations any word or expression to which the meaning has been assigned in the Act has that meaning, unless the context indicates otherwise—
means data on the magnitude of a human activity resulting in emissions or removals taking place during a given period of time. Data on energy use, metal production, land areas, management systems, lime and fertilizer use and waste arising are examples of activity data;
means a combustion installation designed to generate steam and for purposes of these Regulations, a boiler is referred to as a stationary combustion installation;
[Definition substituted by regulation 2(a) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
means greenhouse gas emissions occurring during the exothermic reaction of a fuel with oxygen;
means the unit responsible for Climate Change Monitoring and Evaluation at the Department responsible for environment;
[Definition substituted by regulation 2(b) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
means any natural or juristic person conducting any activity listed in Annexure 1 to these Regulations, including —
| (a) | its holding company or corporation or legal entity, registered in South Africa in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of South Africa; |
| (b) | all its subsidiaries and legally held operations, including joint ventures and partnerships where it has a controlling interest, or is nominated as the responsible entity for the purpose of reporting under these Regulations; and |
| (c) | all facilities generally over which it has operational control, which are not part of another data provider as provided for in these Regulations; |
[Definition substituted by regulation 2(c) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
are emission factors provided in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and its associated supplementary information; these emission factors assume a linear relation between the intensity of the process and the resulting emissions and an average or typical process description;
means capacity as installed;
means a set of operations having the objective of determining the value of a quantity by means of periodic or continuous measurement, applying either measurements in the stack or extractive procedures with a measuring instrument located close to the stack;
are the release of greenhouse gases/and/or their precursors into the atmosphere over a specified area and period of time;
means a coefficient that quantifies the emissions or removals of a gas per unit of activity. Emission factors are often based on a sample of measurement data, averaged to develop a representative rate of emission for a given activity level under a given set of operating conditions;
means any process or activity which releases a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere which is identified by IPCC code in Annexure 1;
means premises, or part of premises where activities in Annexure 1 are being undertaken and wherein the data provider has operational control over those activities;
[Definition substituted by regulation 2(d) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
means emissions that are not emitted through an intentional release through stack or vent. This can include leaks from industrial plant and pipelines;
means any one of the following gases: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O) Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs); including any additional greenhouse gas that is listed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, relevant to the Republic of South Africa and included in a list of additional greenhouse gases identified, published and gazetted by the Minister, taking into account South Africa’s status as a developing country party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;
[Definition substituted by regulation 2(f) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
means a specialist natural or juristic person –
| (a) | that is mandated to conduct verification of submissions including greenhouse gas emissions data and the associated activity data submitted by the data provider to the competent authority in terms of the Regulations; |
| (b) | that has no business, financial, personal or any other interest in the activity or reporting in respect of which that specialist person is appointed in terms of these Regulations; and |
| (c) | that presents no circumstances that may compromise the objectivity of that specialist person in performing such work, excluding – |
| (i) | normal remuneration for a specialist permanently employed by the independent assessor; or |
| (ii) | fair remuneration for work performed in connection with the verification undertaken in terms of these Regulations; |
that does not have either a real or an apparent conflict of interest and not being part of, or under the control of, the competent authority or either the organization to which the verification applies;
[Definition inserted by regulation 2(g) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
[Definition deleted by regulation 2(e) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
means a device, operation or process that provides a particular service or is used for a particular industry. An installation generally performs one or more of the activities listed in annexure 1 and is housed within a facility;
means the guidelines developed by the IPCC for the establishment and maintenance of national greenhouse gas inventories and are available on the IPCC website (www.ipcc.ch);
means the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which is the international body for the assessment of climate change established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988;
means the internetbased emissions reporting system that is a component of the South African Air Quality Information System;
means a data provider has operational control or another company if it, or one of its subsidiaries, has the full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies at the company;
[Definition substituted by regulation 2(h) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
means any other input variable, other than activity data, required in terms of the methodologies prescribed in the latest version of the Methodological Guidelines for Quantification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions;
[Definition inserted by regulation 2(i) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
“process emissions”
means greenhouse gas emissions other than combustion emissions occurring:
| (a) | during use of specific substances; |
| (b) | as a result of intentional and unintentional reactions between substances or their; transformation, including the chemical or electrolytic reduction of metal ores, the thermal decomposition of substances, and; |
| (c) | the formation of substances for use as product or feedstock; |
means one calendar year;
means the national air quality information system established in terms of the National Framework for Air Quality Management in the Republic of South Africa;
means an installation with design capacity rated in terms of thermal heat input per unit;”
[Definition inserted by regulation 2(j) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]
means the reporting methodology approved by the competent authority available on the National Department of Environmental Affairs website (www.environment.gov.za/legislation/guidelines);
means the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, 2004 (Act No. 39of 2004);
include the Annexures to these Regulations;
means a method used for determining greenhouse gas emissions as defined by the “IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2006)” and include─
| (a) | Tier 1 method: A method using readily available statistical data on the intensity of processes (activity data) and IPCC emission factors (specified in the Technical Guidelines for Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Industry or available in from 2006 IPCC); |
| (b) | Tier 2 method: similar to Tier 1 but uses country-specific emission factors; |
| (c) | Tier 3 method: Tier 3 is any methodology more detailed than Tier 2 and might include amongst others, process models and direct measurements as specified in the 2006 IPCC guidelines; |
means that the assumptions and methodologies used as a basis for reporting activity data and greenhouse gas emissions should be clearly explained to facilitate replication and assessment of the submitted information by users of the reported information;
means any temporary failure or air pollution control equipment or process equipment or failure of a process to operate in a normal or usual manner that leads to abrupt increases or decreases in greenhouse gas emission rates;
means the establishment of sound approach and foundation. In the context of emissions inventories, validation involves checking to ensure that reported greenhouse gas emissions data have been compiled correctly in line with reporting instructions and guidelines. It checks the internal consistency of the inventory;
refers to the assessment done by the independent assessor with the purpose of identifying risks of material discrepancies, to establish or confirm accuracy, reliability, completeness, comparability, consistency, transparency and credibility of the reported data submitted by the data provider to the competent authority for its intended application for the purposes of achieving the objectives of the Regulations;
[Definition substituted by regulation 2(k) of Notice No. R994, GG43712, dated 11 September 2020]