Cabinet has officially endorsed a ‘Carbon Capture and Storage Roadmap’ as one of the instruments for lowering the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of South Africa’s coal-intensive energy system.
The Living Planet Report was launched by WWF this week, revealing its key finding. How did you guess? Humanity's demands exceed our planet's capacity to sustain us.
The City of Johannesburg has initiated a dialogue on the topic of climate change and its impact on human health. The aim is to initiate discussion between various stakeholders, as we are already starting to experience intense heat waves and poor air quality.
Five Southern African countries are establishing a regional science centre that will support cross-border research into climate change and land management.
We have entered the Anthropocene Epoch, where human influence will leave marks on this planet that may be comparable to an Ice Age. Professor Mark New opened his inaugural lecture as Pro Vice Chancellor for Climate Change and Director of the African Climate and Development initiative at UCT with a grim outline of the picture the research data is sketching.
I am overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness when I consider the task humanity faces of adapting the complexities of our current ‘civilization’ to a more sustainable & equitable path. It is starting to look as if the politicians cannot save us, as evidenced by the disappointing results of COP17.
Every living thing affects its surroundings. But humanity is now influencing every aspect of the Earth on a scale akin to the great forces of nature.
In late January and again in the second week of March, the sun lashed out in a bit of a temper tantrum, on both occasions sending out a powerful interplanetary coronal mass ejection whose full effects reached Earth in a few days. We got lucky: Nothing much happened, and the resulting space weather storm didn’t pack as big a punch as expected.
If I look back on the many moments of challenge and disturbance in my life it’s clear that a critical question at such moments has always been “How much truth am I willing to expose myself to?”
“Are the right people in the climate change debating room? Evidence shows climate change hugely impacts on the health and the welfare of children, but conversations in the negotiation process seem removed from this reality and finding solutions for this suffering.”
“South Africa is likely to see drastic rises in surface temperatures over the coming century as well as an increase in the occurrence of very hot days. Heat waves are expected to occur more frequently,” said Francois Engelbrecht, Principal Researcher on Climate Studies – Modeling and Environmental Health at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR.)
30% of the earth’s surface is affected by fire. Fire destroys forests and vegetations which are our sources of food – it is both a driver and an indicator of climate change.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing, we’ll all agree, is a dangerous beast. Yet, here in the UNFCCC wolves are walking among us on a daily basis, some easier to spot than others. Politicians are meant to be the masters of disguise, and some of their disguise attempts, while feeble, are passing muster. This article aims to reveal the wolf’s teeth and claws underlying the sheepish disguise of carbon capture and storage under the clean development mechanism.
As the first week of negotiations at the so-called “African COP 17” drew to an end and the final week begins, it is perhaps a poignant time to ask: What could possibly be meant by calling COP 17 “an African” COP?
Oh behalf of Sustainable Seas Trust I'd like to invite you be a to part of the SEA Pledge Action Day! SEA Pledge is a project of SST that will be launched at COP17 in Durban to promote awareness and investment in marine research and conservation.
South African president Jacob Zuma has declared his intention to have a decision on Agriculture at the UN COP17 climate negotiations in Durban; while the World Bank is promoting so-called “Climate Smart Agriculture” and carbon offsets as the future of African agriculture and climate solutions.
South Africa’s Green Economy Accord was launched at the COP17 talks in Durban today. The Accord, one of the most comprehensive social pacts on green jobs in the world, builds a partnership to create 300 000 new jobs by 2020, in economic activities as diverse as energy generation, manufacturing of products that reduce carbon emissions, farming activities to provide feedstock for biofuels, soil and environmental management and eco tourism.
Edna Molewa, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, issued the following statement at the UNFCCC COP17 press briefing on Tuesday 29 November.
During the Midlands Moving Planet – Day of Global Action to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels, uMngeni residents signed a petition asking the local Municipality to make the move to a sustainable future. As part of the celebration of current sunlight and renewable energy, local children painted bright sun shapes on which the demands were written.
It is up to civil society to prevent a potential “genocide” or “ecocide” being agreed to at the Durban Conference of the Parties (COP17) which starts in Durban this week.
On the 17th of November, Grahamstown, a small town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, held a roundtable on COP 17, bringing together stakeholders from across the community.
South Africa's proposed carbon tax is set to act as just another tax on South Africans while inadequately addressing issues of climate change - the very problem it was designed to address. This is because the revenue generated will not be earmarked to tackle issues of climate change, rather it will simply flow into government coffers.
Sheltered from the fierce heat of the Namboomspruit sun, 16 Mokopane community members gathered for an Earth Forum in the cool shadows of an oasis of tall palm trees.
Having a problem with your internet or cellphone connection? Or making strange bleeps yourself? You may have to blame a higher power – the sun.
Today we figured out from first hand experience why Kimberley is known as the city of diamonds. We might not have found a hidden bag of jewels, but what we did find was something far more valuable.
'Many hands make light work'. This idiom was particularly true for the Climate Train on Monday, 7 November, when the entire team came together for a collaborative AMbush (guerrilla gardening) on the corner of Market and George Street, Krugersdorp.
'She is the frame of the unexpected. A young girl with no rank and no title, just two small hands that carry her entire community. There are no facilities here; there are no green bins that line the streets, just her understanding.'
For the past week we've been doing a lot of climate talk, tree planting and painting with the aim to raise awareness about climate change. We've travelled through four cities and worked with over 3000 children and adults, but when we arrived in Klerksdorp on Friday, we were taught a couple new moves.
Governments recognize that they need to speed up and scale up their efforts to combat climate change and they know that negotiations this week in Panama are important to prepare the ground for the next successful step towards that goal in Durban, the UN climate change chief said.
'During this year, governments have been steadily building the pillars that will support the next chapter of the global climate regime. They have recognized very clearly that the current level of effort is not enough and they have realized that it is important to increase both the level of emission controls on greenhouse gases as well as the capacity of countries to adapt to climate change,' said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
