Three plants proceeding in South Africa after national biofuels strategy outlined

In South Africa, three plants have been announced or are proceeding in the wake of the agreement on South African biofuels strategy.

Sasol and Siyanda are going ahead for now with a 26 Mgy soy biodiesel plant in Newcastle, and the partners said they would make a final decision next month. The Central Energy Fund and the Industrial Development Corporation are planning a 26 Mgy sugar ethanol plant in Mpumalanga and a 26 Mgy sugar beet ethanol plant in Eastern Cape Province.

Last week, the national government unveiled its biofuels policy, which set a target of 2 percent of fuel supply come from biofuels by 2013. The policy excludes corn as a feedstock, restricting the 2 percent target to biodiesel made from soybeans, canola or sunflower oils, or ethanol from sugar cane or sugar beet.

The policy also will implement a 50 percent fuel tax exemption for biodiesel and a 100 percent exemption for ethanol. The final plan backed away from a 4.5 percent biofuels target that was the centerpiece of a draft plan circulated in the summer.

South Africa has also been active on climate change. The IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) group met last month with Bali on the agenda, while a recent two-day conference of the 17 “Heavy Smoker” major polluting nations ended with disappointment over President George Bush’s call for voluntary emission targets set by each individual country. The British climate envoy called the US “isolated” and the South African Environment Minister said “the US needs to go back to the drawing board”

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