For the last year, Central and Eastern European governments have been pressuring the EU to include less restrictive criteria for biomass energy production and to recognise natural gas as a transition fuel towards climate neutrality. They may have realised their ambitions with the current draft of the EU Sustainable Taxonomy proposal. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) will be … [Read more...]
Paper Recycling 101 for Global Recycling Day
One of the planet’s most pressing problems is the incorrect disposal of waste. About 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste is generated annually, according to the World Bank, with conservative estimates being that at least 33% of that isn’t managed in an environmentally safe manner. With the majority of municipal solid waste coming from homes, Global Recycling Day on … [Read more...]
Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission appointed
President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed members of the inaugural Presidential Climate Change Coordinating Commission (P4C) with effect from 17 December 2020. The establishment of the Commission emanates from the Presidential Jobs Summit held in October 2018 when social partners agreed that a statutory body be formed to coordinate and oversee the just transition towards a … [Read more...]
Greenhouse gases still at record levels after lockdown
The industrial slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not curbed record levels of greenhouse gases which are trapping heat in the atmosphere, increasing temperatures and driving more extreme weather, ice melt, sea-level rise and ocean acidification, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The lockdown has cut emissions of many pollutants and greenhouse … [Read more...]
Fossil fuel divestment: will UCT finally heed the call?
It is now six years since Fossil Free SA first called on the University of Cape Town (UCT) to phase out all investments in climate-destroying fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. In those six years, the global fossil fuel divestment movement has grown from a handful of institutions to well over a thousand, including New York, Paris, London, our own city of Cape Town; a whole … [Read more...]
Cape Town’s pollen level spike cause for concern
This year saw some of the highest recorded pollen counts in history, which had cities from Europe to the US covered in clouds of pollen as a result of global warming. A spike in South Africa's pollen production has also been flagged by local scientists who are calling for an urgent expansion of the country's pollen monitoring programme. Prof Jonny Peter, Head of the … [Read more...]
HBO documentary focuses on solutions to environmental crisis
Ice On Fire, a new HBO documentary focusing on solutions to our escalating environmental crisis, is now streaming first on Showmax in South Africa, just months after its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The documentary has a 90% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and “should be essential viewing for anyone who plans to carry on living on the planet,” to quote … [Read more...]
Coal power: 50% less jobs, 1000 times more destruction
As our new Minister of Mineral and Energy Resources fights to keep our economy in the dark ages, aided and abetted by a media sector credulous enough to repeat ‘clean coal’ rhetoric,* it’s worth trying to get a sense of the full damage being done. As a Minister, his duty is to a Constitution that aims to extend the human and socio-economic rights of all South Africans; but his … [Read more...]
Natural methane release leads to increased atmospheric warming
The World Business Academy has released a 31-page whitepaper addressing a global phenomenon it calls the “Methane Accelerator”: cumulative emissions from massive deposits of methane gas, sequestered for millennia in permafrost, glaciers and marine sediment, but which are now being released due to warmer atmospheric and ocean temperatures. For at least 100 years after it is … [Read more...]
Encouraging young women to make their mark in energy
It is crucial that young women be inspired to enter the energy and science sectors at an early age, while still in primary school, because often by the time they reach high school their attention is drawn to the commercial sector, says Dr Thembakazi Mali, Interim CEO for the SA National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), who adds that while there is an increase in the … [Read more...]
World’s largest air pollution hotspot is Mpumalanga
A groundbreaking analysis of satellite data from 1 June to 31 August this year reveals the world’s largest NO2 air pollution hotspots across six continents in the most detail to date. Greenpeace analysis of the data points to coal and transport as the two principle sources of air pollution, with Mpumalanga in South Africa topping the chart as the world’s largest NO2 hotspot … [Read more...]
Illegal logging returns to Congo forests despite carbon threat
The Congolese Minister of Environment, Amy Ambatobe, has reinstated 6,500 km² of logging concessions that were cancelled in August 2016 by the then Environment Minister Robert Bopolo following instructions from then Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo. The three concessions reinstated on 1 February 2018 were awarded to the Chinese-owned logging companies Forestière pour le … [Read more...]
Why empowering women is the best way to solve climate change
In April of this year, the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii recorded its first-ever carbon dioxide reading over 410 parts per million (ppm). This is a brand-new state of affairs, as humans have never existed on Earth with CO2 levels over 300 ppm. If carbon emissions continue their current trend, our atmosphere could get to a point it hasn’t been at in 50 million years—when … [Read more...]
