Sasol Climate Change Report 2023 - Book - Page 11
INTRODUCTION
TRANSFORMING FOR RESILIENCE
GOVERNANCE
CLIMATE ADVOCACY AND POLICY
DATA AND ASSURANCE
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
In the last year, we have worked with great
purpose on our decarbonisation roadmaps.
We are determined to stay the course.
Sasol’s decarbonisation journey is not taking place in
a vacuum; it is intricately connected to an operating
context with multiple stakeholders, various levers
and countless linkages. But good intent, and solid
progress, can be unexpectedly undermined by
shifting priorities and the performance of those
multiple stakeholders. In South Africa, the
performance of state-owned enterprises has
implications for the achievement of private sector
and national decarbonisation objectives.
We are proud of the extent to which Sasol’s roadmap
supports – even buttresses – the country’s Nationally
Determined Contribution (NDC), but factors over
which we have minimal or no control threaten to
hinder the delivery we are aiming to achieve by 2030.
Fleetwood Grobler //
President and Chief Executive Officer
We have very limited control over factors such as
exchange rates, oil prices and market demand for
our products. Added to these is the fact that South
Africa’s grid emission factor is likely to remain higher,
for longer, than more sanguine projections would
have had us believe.
Dear stakeholders
In many ways, on many fronts, Sasol’s decarbonisation journey has
become considerably more fraught over the past 12 months. This is true
for most corporations globally, particularly those in the energy sector.
Regardless, we remain committed to reducing our GHG emissions.
At its most basic level, Sasol’s decarbonisation
process rests on the following: increased use of
renewables; greater energy efficiency; the use of
transition gas, if economically feasible, and a
reduced reliance on coal through boiler and gasifier
turndown. This, in a nutshell, is how we aim to
achieve our 30% reduction by 2030.
We remain as energised about decarbonising as
we have been at any stage in the recent past. In
2023, the balance of evidence was that the
decarbonisation commitment of other energy
majors has become somewhat clouded by the
energy security imperative. This has become an
overriding concern of companies and governments,
particularly in the global North. But national energy
security has also become a more common theme in
the decarbonisation discourse being advanced by
developing nations and regions such as India, China
and South America, where net zero ambitions are
being pushed out to beyond 2050.
Presently, in South Africa there is little overt discourse
along these lines but we anticipate that here too
the national government is becoming increasingly
sensitised to concerns around the reality of energy
security and availability. This growing issue is having
important implications for Sasol.
Against this backdrop, in the year since I last
communicated with you, we have worked with great
purpose on our decarbonisation roadmap. We have
signed PPAs for over 600MW of renewable energy,
procured with Air Liquide. As promised, we also
produced our first volumes of green hydrogen in
Sasolburg. This report details some of the many
advances made in the past year.
I must stress – once again – how important
incentives are to the decarbonisation journeys we
and others are on. In South Africa, of course, there is
at present a paucity of such incentives, unlike much
of the global North.
“Multiple variables
impact the affordability
of our roadmap, which
to be achievable, has to
be affordable.”
Recent global gas price increases led Sasol to
re-evaluate the need for the proposed 40 – 60 PJ LNG
intake. As such, we have implemented mechanisms
to extend our Mozambique gas plateau from 2026 to
2028, and potentially further, while continuing
to investigate alternative gas sources. In 2023, we
discovered additional gas at Bonito-1 located in the
PT5-C licence area in Mozambique, which shows
promise and is now being evaluated through an
appraisal programme.
In June 2023, we announced a JV (subject to approval
by the relevant authorities) between Sasol ecoFT and
SASOL CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT 2023
Danish technology provider, Topsoe, to develop, build,
own and operate SAF plants, and market SAF derived
primarily from non-fossil fuel feedstock, utilising
green hydrogen and sustainable sources of carbon.
Regrettably, in 2023 we also witnessed the growing
adoption of legislative and regulatory measures
hindering participation of developing countries, such
as South Africa, in the emerging low-carbon sectors
of more advanced economies.
A further complicating factor is access to the national
electricity grid. We can and will sign up viable
renewable-electricity supplies but receiving those
supplies at our facilities in the quantities anticipated
is by no means certain.
All these variables impact the affordability of our
roadmap, which, to be achievable, has to be
affordable.
These are some of the vagaries and variables with
which our Group Executive Committee (GEC), Board,
management and subject-matter experts are
grappling. We are alive to the many competitive
opportunities that our technology and expertise
present. We shall not deviate from the Reset,
Transition and Reinvent pillars of our Future Sasol
strategy but we have to be responsive to emerging
trends and hurdles. For this reason, we have
consistently communicated the reality that, given
these dynamics and the uncertainty over the
availability, maturity and timing of technology and
feedstocks, our transformation to a Future Sasol is
most unlikely to follow a linear path. Events in the
past year only served to underscore this conviction.
Despite multiple headwinds, Team Sasol remains
determined to stay the course on our transition
journey, buoyed by the advances you will read about
on these pages.
Fleetwood Grobler
President and Chief Executive Officer
30 August 2023
10