How could you tell if there’s an energy transition underway? Just ask Dong Energy. The $154 billion fossil-fuel company is abandoning all fossil fuels and changing its name to Ørsted, to honor the discoverer of electromagnetism. Dong once stood for Danish Oil and Natural Gas. On Feb. 2, the company announced it will stop all use of coal by 2023. On Sep. 29, Dong sold all its … [Read more...]
African farmers sold out by secret deal on plant variety protection
"Harmonisation' is the new term used for the removal of African farmers' rights to survive by saving their own seeds as has been done over millenia. This is also the term used for removing our rights to natural and traditional medicines. On 06 July 2015, in Arusha, Tanzania, a Diplomatic Conference held under the auspices of the African Regional Intellectual Property … [Read more...]
Climate Change Is Real: Just Ask the World Bank
Time is running out. This week, government officials and climate scientists from all over the world are meeting in Berlin, Germany, to finalize a U.N. study on climate change and its solutions. While the study hasn't been released yet, a draft of it has, and it's pretty stunning. The draft report from the International Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, says that time is … [Read more...]
World Bank to stop financing coal projects
The World Bank plans to stop providing financial support to new coal projects, unless the developments take place in poor countries where alternatives like renewable energy would be too expensive. The draft proposal, Toward a Sustainable Energy Future for All, outlines the World Bank’s goal of providing universal access to energy to help end poverty in a clean and … [Read more...]
COP17 groups say Africa must reject carbon markets
Over 100 civil society organizations from Africa and around the world sent a letter earlier this week to African negotiators attending the UN global climate talks in Durban, calling for them to reject efforts to place agricultural soils within a carbon market. Countries in Durban will consider whether to advance a separate agriculture work program within the global climate … [Read more...]
Whose water is it anyway?
'Whatever we do to the water bodies on this planet, we're doing to ourselves.' Both Earth and our human bodies consist of 70% water and 30% solids. 'On this planet the water cycle and the life cycle is one,' said Helen Lockart of the Two Oceans Aquarium on World Water Day. Water is our lifeline - without water we cannot survive longer than a day or two. Most people are … [Read more...]
South Africa needs clean energy, not coal!
In just days, the World Bank will vote on a proposed R29 billion loan to Eskom to build the fourth-largest coal plant in the world - a climate disaster. At the same time, Eskom plans to effectively double electricity rates over the next three years. Big polluters are getting cut-rate electricity while ratepayers would be left to pay back this disastrous loan. But the loan is … [Read more...]
Biofuels for europe driving land grabbing in africa
The amount of farmland being taken in Africa to meet Europe's increasing demand for biofuels is underestimated and out of control, new investigations by Friends of the Earth reveal today. The research, which looked at 11 African countries, found at least five million hectares of land - an area the size of Denmark - is being acquired by foreign companies to produce biofuels … [Read more...]
