The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Wednesday welcomed the South African move to introduce carbon tax in curbing greenhouse emissions.

"We welcome the explicit acknowledgment of the need to price carbon emissions and the phasing in of a tax instrument for this purpose," said Saliem Fakier, head of WWF's Living Planet unit in South Africa.

Fakier stressed the urgent need to transform South Africa's economy so it would be less dependent on carbon emission producing industry.

"We believe that both in the interim and long term, renewables allow greater flexibility in our energy mix and ability to meet growing demand, while at the same time stimulating green economy growth," Fakier said.

South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in his 2012/ 13 budget speech earlier on Wednesday that the country would introduce a carbon tax next year to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

As proposed by the treasury, all industrial sectors would have a 60-percent tax-free threshold on annual emissions, and all but electricity would be able to claim additional relief of at least 10 percent.

A carbon tax of 120 rand (about 15 U.S. dollars) per ton of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) would be levied for emissions above the thresholds. The levy would come into effect in 2013/14, and increase by 10 percent a year until 2020.

But nearly two-thirds of emissions will be exempted from tax until 2020 to lessen the impact on industry. "To minimize adverse impacts on industry competitiveness and effectively manage the transition to a low-carbon economy, temporary thresholds are proposed ... which an exemption from the carbon tax will be granted," said the treasury.

As Africa's largest economy, South Africa is also the continent's biggest polluter and is one of the 20 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide.