Sasol maintains that it has taken the required action to reduce emissions at its operations in Mpumalanga as the group seeks a declaratory order for emissions reduction in the area.
The petrochemical giant approached the high court in September after the department of forestry, fisheries & the environment (DFFE) gazetted the second-generation Highveld Priority Area Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) in March 2025.
The plan set a target to reduce emissions from the industry and generation sectors by 40% by 2030 and sought to reduce windblown dust emissions in mining areas by 40% in 2030. It also adopted the target of cutting emissions from on-road vehicles from by 30% in 2030 and the minimising domestic fuel burning emissions from the 2019 baseline by 30% by 2030.
Speaking to Business Times this week following the release of the group’s interim results for the six months ended December 2025, Sasol CEO Simon Baloyi said the group had conducted its own assessment and found it had taken enough measures to reduce emissions.
Baloyi said Sasol wants the court to make a declaration to confirm the company had done what it was meant to do. He said Sasol wants the DFFE to explain the rationale for the emission targets and assign responsibilities to the different players in the industry.
Sasol had done its part to reduce emissions, and to make a blanket call for all players to cut emissions by 40% was unwarranted, he said.
We have now contracted approximately 9Mt of carbon offsets over the next three years, securing around 60% of our offset requirements
— Simon Baloyi, Sasol CEO
“It is similar to saying everyone, not just Sasol but everyone in the country, must shut down. It does not make sense. It is about seeking clarity in terms of how the department came up with those things and who it applies to.”
Baloyi said Sasol’s focus remained on decarbonising in a way that cuts emissions while safeguarding energy security and affordability.
He said the group had made progress in its plan to include renewable energy in its profile since making the commitments to the market during the Capital Markets Day in 2025.
He pointed to Sasol securing more than 1.2GW of renewable energy in South Africa and moving towards its 2GW target by the end of 2030.
“We have now contracted approximately 9Mt of carbon offsets over the next three years, securing around 60% of our offset requirements,” he said.
However, air quality remains a contentious matter.
In March 2022, the courts found that the poor air quality in the Mpumalanga Highveld region breaches residents’ constitutional rights to an environment that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing. It ordered the minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment to make regulations to implement and enforce the Highveld Priority Area AQMP.
Last April, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) said the “very fact that high levels of pollution continue unabated in the Highveld Priority Area despite the dangers they pose to the community, including children, is a clear attestation that the non-binding set of goals contained in the Highveld Plan are insufficient to achieve the substantial reductions in atmospheric emissions that are required in the Highveld Priority Area.”
Robyn Hugo, director of climate change engagement at shareholder activism organisation Just Share said these are the regulations which Sasol now asks the court to regard as non-binding.
“In other words, in addition to and despite the other leniency already granted to industry in relation to air quality compliance and the findings of the high court and SCA, Sasol seeks confirmation that it is not required to comply with the AQMP and the regulations,” she said.
Hugo said Sasol’s comment that all industry would be required to shut down if it were required to comply with the law was typical of corporate “lobbying arguments often deployed as a justification to avoid ambition, move slowly, and protect major polluters at the expense of the rest of the economy”.
Sasol, which is looking to reduce net debt by the end of the financial year, reported a 52% fall in earnings before interest and tax.
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