The University of Cape Town has a clearly defined, institution-wide process for carbon management that is rooted in over a decade of continuous annual greenhouse-gas (GHG) measurement and formal reporting. The UCT Carbon Footprint Assessment Report – 2024 confirms that UCT has conducted consecutive carbon-footprint inventories every year since 2012, applying the internationally recognised Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard to quantify Scope 1, Scope 2 and selected Scope 3 emissions across all campuses under UCT’s operational control. The 2024 assessment covers the full financial year (1 January – 31 December 2024) and includes Main Campus, Medical Campus, off-campus residences, the Graduate School of Business, Hiddingh Campus and ICTS on Main.

UCT’s long-standing practice of annual carbon accounting provides the empirical foundation for carbon-management planning, trend analysis and target setting.

UCT’s carbon-reduction goals are formally articulated and integrated into this process. The report reaffirms UCT’s institutional target of achieving net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2050, requiring reductions of 2–5% per annum from the 2019 baseline. The 2024 assessment notes that UCT’s combined Scope 1, Scope 2 and Other Direct emissions have declined by 17% between 2019 and 2024, and by 8% since the first baseline year in 2012, despite post-COVID normalisation of campus operations.

These long-term reductions demonstrate that UCT’s carbon-management process tracks not only annual inventory results but also progress against long-horizon decarbonisation objectives.

The 2024 report provides detailed analysis that directly informs UCT’s mitigation strategy. It identifies electricity consumption as the single largest emissions driver, with Scope 2 emissions accounting for 48% of UCT’s total emissions and Main Campus alone contributing 64% of Scope 2 emissions. Because electricity use is fully under UCT’s operational control, the report explicitly highlights it as “the greatest opportunity for emission reductions” and recommends prioritising both on-site renewable-energy generation and energy-efficiency initiatives

UCT has already begun scaling this approach: in 2024 the university generated 95,725 kWh of on-site solar electricity, avoiding 87 tCO₂e of emissions, and additional PV installations are awaiting approval from the City of Cape Town. The report further notes that UCT is in an advanced procurement process for wheeled renewable electricity, which is expected to deliver substantial Scope 2 reductions from early 2027 onward

UCT’s carbon-management process extends to lower-emission but institutionally material sources such as fleet emissions, refrigerant gases, waste, business travel and commuting. The 2024 report provides specific operational guidance, including expanding the use of low-global-warming-potential refrigerants, phasing out R22, improving the accuracy and breadth of business-travel data, and reducing waste-to-landfill (which accounted for 1.2% of total emissions, with 74% of all waste still landfilled in 2024). It also highlights progress already achieved—for example, a 40% reduction in Scope 1 emissions between 2023 and 2024, largely due to a 77% fall in diesel use for generators resulting from reduced load shedding (316,000 L in 2024 vs nearly 1.4 million L in 2023)

A defined carbon-governance cycle is visible throughout the 2024 report:
(1) annual measurement → (2) identification of priority sources → (3) targeted interventions → (4) monitoring of outcomes → (5) recommendations for continual improvement. The report includes a dedicated “Carbon Management” section that outlines this process and records actions underway, such as planned electrification of UCT’s shuttle and vehicle fleet (integrated with solar-PV rollout), enhanced metering and data-quality improvements, and a shift to more accurate consumption-based activity data for Scope 3 categories such as construction, food and commuting

These mechanisms demonstrate that UCT’s approach is not limited to reporting but constitutes an iterative, institutionally managed system for emissions reduction.

Overall, the 2024 Carbon Footprint Assessment Report provides clear, verifiable evidence that UCT operates a systematic carbon-management process aligned with international standards, governed by formal institutional targets, and actively supported by ongoing infrastructure investments, renewable-energy expansion, data-management reforms, and evidence-based mitigation practices. This constitutes robust documentation that UCT has an established and continuously improving approach to managing and reducing its carbon emissions.