South Africa's proposed targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, if they are adopted, will not place an extra burden on the country's business sector, Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Monday.

"[I want] to allay the fear of business... This is not an extra burden on business," she told MPs in the National Assembly during debate on last week's state of the nation address.

Sonjica repeated that South Africa had committed itself to "potential mitigation actions" leading to a 34% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions - relative to a "business as usual" scenario - by 2020, and 42% by 2025.

But she stressed this would not be at the expense of the country's economic development.
"We can't take an extreme view of environmental conservation at the expense of development," she said.

The adoption of such mitigation targets was conditional on the establishment of a legally-binding international regime.

"The extent to which this action will be implemented depends on the provision of financial resources, the transfer of technology and capacity-building support by developed countries."

The construction, by utility Eskom, of new coal-fired power stations, and the carbon dioxide they will emit, had been taken into account in the 34% target, Sonjica said.

"There is no need to panic," she said. Should the targets be adopted, greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa are forecast to continue rising for the next 15 years, peaking in 2025. At this point they are expected to level off, but will only start dropping a decade later, around 2035.