Although 90% of South African businesses believed that government exerts a strong influence on environmental practices through legislation and regulation, 77% of these businesses do not believe that the South African government has a consistent long-term environmental tax and regulation policy.

A further concern was that half of local businesses felt that the meeting criteria required by tax incentives were too onerous.

These were some of the findings in a report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) called ‘Appetite for Change: The Global business perspective on tax and regulation for a low carbon economy', released on Thursday.

"The absence of clarity discourages investment in change and, as such, targets need to be sufficiently ambitious and backed by legally binding frameworks to be effective," noted the report.

Only 20% of South African businesses deem that government was effective at providing signals to business on the need to assess the environmental impact and energy use (as opposed to 44% effective globally). Only 27% felt that government efforts were effective at encouraging businesses to significantly change environmental behaviour.

Businesses were said to be looking to government for leadership in establishing the necessary behavioural changes to halt global warming.

"Business leaders believe that stable, properly enforced policies protect fair competition and facilitate long-term planning which is vital for transition to a low-carbon economy. However, businesses want to be involved and play a roll in developing those policies," said PwC head of national tax technical and sustainability and climate change tax practice leader Kyle Mandy.

The majority of South African businesses added that potential cost savings and managing corporate reputation were the next most influential measures, which impacted on decision making when it came to responsible environmental behaviour.

Some 84% of all 700 respondents worldwide agreed that climate change would alter the way they do business over the next two to three years, while in France the figure rises to 100% and in the UK, Canada and Australia it sits at 90%.

Many executives believed that current policies were not sufficiently coherent or effective but remain ready to support policies that are consistent, linked to saving the environment and which are developed in consultation with the private sector.

Some 73% of businesses in South Africa concurred with global business sentiment on the clarity of policies. 62% of businesses internationally held the belief that existing environmental taxes, regulations and incentives are ineffective, inconsistent and unclear.

44% of executives felt it was primarily up to government to take the lead in bringing about a shift in behaviour regarding climate change. This proportion falls to 33% in the case of South African businesses where 37% believe that business should take the leading role, more than double the global average.

When it came to the most effective way of getting businesses to reduce their impact on the environment, businesses saw the answer to lying in a mixture of ‘carrot and stick' - with 86% opting for tax incentives and 83% for regulation.

The leading factors instrumental in influencing an organisation's environmental behaviour were compliance with legislation and regulation (85%), corporate reputation (74%), cost savings (73%) and competitive advantage (67%).

A significant 92% of respondents were in favour of more environmental tax incentives, but 55% feel the current criteria to qualify for these are too tough, and 71% consider current tax incentives do not sufficiently motivate or promote behaviour change.

The ploughing back of money raised from environmental taxes and regulation directly into green projects is seen as important by 88% - but only 31% were confident this would happen.

Copenhagen has shown that climate change is testing the ability of the world's leaders to develop effective environmental policies through consultation. Many organisations in and out of government were found to be frustrated at the slow pace of negotiations.

In the South African supplement to the international report, the global results were compared to the South African results from interviews with 30 of the country's biggest companies.