The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Johannesburg

South Africa's government has set out an ambitious proposal to deal with climate change in the coming years, including slapping a possible carbon tax on carbon dioxide-spewing industries.

Saying the world faced "a global climate emergency," the environment ministry unveiled the strategy geared toward reducing greenhouse gases last week. "The world faces a global climate emergency. It is now clear that only action by both developed and developing countries can prevent the climate crisis from deepening," environment minister Martinus Van Schalkwyk said in a statement.

The plan, which includes stringent energy efficiency measures, has been endorsed by the cabinet, though parliament must still approve it. Finance officials are investigating ways of implementing the tax.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said evidence for warming was now "unequivocal" and that there was a more than 90-percent probability that humans were the cause for it.

Human-generated greenhouse gases rose by 70 percent between 1970 and 2004 from 28.7 to 49 billion tonnes per year in carbon dioxide (CO2) or its equivalent.