Sasol, whose complex industrial operations make a high contribution to South Africa’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is a founding member of the UN Global Compact-sanctioned African Business Leaders Coalition.  

More accurately, Sasol’s CEO and president, Fleetwood Grobler, is part of the inaugural private-sector coalition that is led by chief executives from across the continent, including Naspers’ Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa and Safaricom’s Peter Ndegwa.  

Africa generates less than 3% of global emissions. “Therefore, we are in a position as Africa, almost, to leapfrog some of the other [regions] … if we get our decarbonisation strategy well thought through and aligned,” Grobler said recently.

In November, the region will host global leaders in Egypt for COP27. By that time, the coalition of African CEOs will have put their heads together to give a private-sector perspective about how the continent can march towards 2030 GHG reduction targets in a sustainable and climate-friendly manner.

The structure was formalised in May. In July, Grobler made his way to the US, where he met with other CEOs from the coalition to discuss a roadmap to COP27 and beyond.  

“We [Sasol] are one of the few founding members coming from a resource background — commodities: coal, gas and oil. It was a privilege that they [the UN Global Compact] invited Sasol to be one of the founding members,” Grobler says.

Sasol, which has often found itself in the crosshairs of climate change and environmental activists and, more recently, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), supports the Paris Agreement and its calls for higher ambitions, Grobler says.

“We [Sasol] have deepened our commitment to this cause through our updated and newly developed roadmaps, targets and ambitions for the short, medium and long term,” says the Sasol president.

At its Capital Markets Day last September, Sasol communicated its 2050 net zero emissions ambition and Future Sasol strategy, which “places us on a trajectory towards a significantly reduced GHG emissions profile”.

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By 2030, Sasol wants to achieve a 30% reduction of Scope 1 and 2 emissions for its energy and international chemicals businesses, as well as a 20% emission reduction from the use of energy products for its energy business. 

Scope 1 relates to company operations, meaning emissions that arise as a direct outcome of an entity’s activities. Scope 2 pertains to emissions generated from inputs such as feedstock and energy consumption, which, in most cases, tend to be procured from external parties.  

To achieve its targets and minimise the company’s impact on the environment, Sasol concedes that there will be trade-offs, which will include implications on future cash flows, capital commitments and profitability for the company. In addition, work has been done on what this will all mean for Sasol’s non-current assets from a financial standpoint.  

On the road to Egypt’s COP27, the concept underpinning the African CEO-led coalition is “learning from business leaders from South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and the whole continent,” according to Grobler.  

There are different nuances on the continent, “and it is conducive to understand what are the learnings from South Africa versus Namibia, Morocco, Egypt, to name a few,” Grobler says.

There are varying challenges in terms of decarbonising the continent’s countries.

South Africa is industrialised and dependent on coal, from which it needs to transition away. Moreover, the country’s Just Transition will affect the livelihoods of people employed in industries and sectors, such as coal, that contribute to high GHG emissions.

That is a representation of one extreme as it pertains to the continent.

On the other end of the continuum, is a country like Namibia, which doesn’t face any of the dilemmas confronting South Africa. This has to be factored in an assessment of the region, says Grobler.

Therefore, the adoption of renewables in the Just Transition will mean different things for South Africa and Namibia.

For Namibia, renewables would constitute a new economy. The country will have to consider how to be inclusive as it leapfrogs into the future.

“There are different nuances. It’s good for the continent to share those types of views, learnings and also to support each other,” says Grobler. 

Back home, Sasol disclosed during the publication of its annual results for 2022 that the NPA had served a summons on the company for environmental breaches.

“At the moment, it [the summons] is in process with the legal team. I can’t comment … suffice to say we’ve got full transparency,” Grobler says.

“We’ve got full collaboration with the NPA in terms of this investigation. We need to go through the process. There’s nothing I can add to that. I think also there’s nothing to hide in terms of what they’re looking at,” says Grobler.

COP27 is scheduled to take place in Egypt from 6 to 18 November.  DM/BM