Moving households to cleaner energy through air quality offsets

Highest levels of exposure to polluted air in South Africa occur in low-income settlements where households burn solid fuels. The Department of Environmental Affairs has recently developed a legally enforceable mechanism to deal with the problem - air quality offsets. Industries that receive some leniency from complying with emission standards are required in terms of their Atmospheric Emission Licences to reduce ambient pollution levels through emission offset programmes. However, domestic energy use patterns across South Africa are diverse, and the impact of household emissions on air quality depends on both the nature of the burning and the meteorology of the area. This paper argues that, although air quality offsets are an effective way of leveraging funds and legally enforcing action to facilitate households transitioning to cleaner sources of energy, they can only transition a sub-set of households. Offsets targeting domestic emissions are likely to remain confined to industrialised areas where there is a high density of solid-fuel burning households. The duration of offset interventions is linked to the period of leniency granted and the life of the implementing facility. Support from other government departments, through providing all households with legal tenure and preferably formal housing, and promoting buy-in from the community, is required to ensure the success of air quality offset initiatives.