Articles

Transport and the environment

Clasa Incorporate Winter 2009
By Adam Gunn

Transport operations and their associated infrastructure give rise to large environmental impacts.


New projects mostly require environmental authorisation and developers must therefore walk the gangplank of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. Although their development is critical to the South African economy's growth, where the public feels they are being done injudiciously they are sometimes not well received.


To illustrate the point one needs to think no further than two recent controversial infrastructure developments.


The first example is the new international airport north of Durban near La Lucia. The principle concerns of Interested and Affected Parties (IAPs) to this development was the attendant impact on the nearby environment. Two of the most important issues were noise and the impact on a significant roosting colony of barn swallows in a reed bed near the planned development. The concern raised by IAPs was that once the airport was commissioned the roosting site of the barn swallows would be lost forever. The IAPs advanced some creative arguments and even went to the extent of auctioning off each individual swallow in the roosting colony in order to raise funds for the campaign. Although multiple appeals were lodged with the Minister of Environment and Tourism objecting to the development, these were all dismissed and the construction of the airport is proceeding as planned.


The second example is the planned N2 toll road through the Eastern Cape. The concern, again raised by IAPs was that the route for the toll road was predetermined and that no real effort was made by the developers to mitigate the impacts of the road. If the developer's proposed route is followed then the IAPs allege that significant areas of extremely high biodiversity will be impacted and current wilderness areas will be lost forever. The project is still going through the final phases of public participation in concluding its EIA.


The above two examples illustrate how controversial new infrastructure projects in the Transport Sector can be. A project will require an EIA and approval from the authorities if it constitutes a listed activity in terms of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA) and the attendant Regulations.


For those projects that already exist or where an environmental authorisation is not required, the requirements on transport operations for compliance are to be found in various pieces of legislation. Primary legislation being the National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996. Depending on the type of substance that is being transported the Hazardous Substances Act 15 of 1973 may also be applicable.


Another aspect which is very topical and also closely linked to the business of transport is the issue of carbon emissions or carbon footprint. Due to the fact that most transport necessarily entails the burning of fossil fuels, the level of transport activity is usually directly linked with size of the associated carbon footprint. Certain of the large transport operators particularly in the airline industry in other countries have attempted to off-set their carbon emissions by various methods. One way is by financially supporting projects which reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (such as planting trees) the other is to financially support projects that replace the burning of fossil fuels with so-called "clean technologies". This is also encouraged by the Kyoto Protocol which provides financial incentives for some of these types of schemes.


In South Africa some of these schemes are starting to be implemented often due to pressure exerted by shareholder interest groups. For example in the case of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, numerous contracts are being placed for transport that is associated with less emissions and a smaller carbon footprint. Operators have been asked to tender to run busses during the event to the stadiums hosting matches which operate on liquefied petroleum gas instead of conventional diesel.