Environmental Focus
'Green mining' tops indaba agenda
Last week's Mining Indaba delegates heard much about the need to streamline South African mining, with a focus on making it greener, but there were some in the audience who questioned officials' sincerity when making such promises, writes Legalbrief ...
Read More
South Africa
Call for caution in Just Transition funding deal
While Forestry, Fisheries & Environment Minister Barbara Creecy agrees that decisions on the $8.5bn climate finance offer must be reached with urgency, proper interrogation about its potential impact must not be rushed. A News24 report notes that the Minister ...
Read More
KZN still waiting for disaster relief funds
KZN is still waiting on government to disburse the disaster relief funds a month after floods hit the province. According to a report in The Citizen, addressing the media last week, now former KZN Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cogta ...
Read More
Creecy sets up expert air pollution panel
Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has initiated the process to appoint an expert panel in terms of Section 3 of the National Environment Management Act, to advise her on appeals related to air quality matters under consideration ...
Read More
NGOs challenge Richards Bay gas port EIA
Eskom details obstacles to adding capacity
Big players turn to solar power
KiPower coal station approval expired
SABS consults on new drinking water standard
Infrastructure at risk of collapse, MPs warn
Ugu District ratepayers embark on payment go-slow
Limpopo town calls in HRC over sewage woes
HRC bid for ‘blanket order’ powers declined
NICD wastewater dashboard lauded
City acts ahead of organic waste ban
Study punts micro-digesters to aid climate mitigation
Cape gears for next locust infestation
Small scale fishers slam 'draconian' laws
Legalbrief Policy Watch
Minister to appoint expert panel on air pollution
Forestry, Fisheries & Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has initiated the process to appoint an expert panel in terms of section 3 of the National Environment Management Act that will advise her on appeals related to air quality matters currently being ...
Read More
Floods show country not prepared for disasters – President
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said the country’s response to the recent KZN floods showed that ‘our collective state of readiness for natural disasters has to be drastically improved, and disaster risk assessments by all provinces have to be regular and ...
Read More
Analysis
Due diligence laws will enforce corporate liability
Binding due diligence laws are necessary to enforce legal liability for corporate violations of human rights and avoid the exercise becoming a mere box-ticking process for big corporates, a panel discussion heard last week. Writing in the Mail & Guardian Online ...
Read More
Africa
Lesotho mine denies polluting water systems
A leading mining company in Lesotho, Letšeng Diamond Mine, has admitted in confidential reports its operations are polluting water systems that poor, rural communities rely on. But the company denies this in public. A Daily Maverick report notes that the ...
Read More
Ivory Coast hosts desertification talks
Nine African heads of states attended last week’s opening session of the UN’s COP15 talks to fight desertification and land degradation that have devastated large swathes of the continent amid climate change. A report in The Mercury notes that the ...
Read More
$4m for Nigerian clean-tech plastic waste company
Nigerian clean-tech plastic waste recycling company Kaltani has raised $4m in seed funding to expand its recycling operations across the country. A Disrupt Africa report notes that founded in Nigeria by Engineer Obi Charles Nnanna, Kaltani aims to solve Africa’s ...
Read More
Namibian communal conservancy programme thrives
World
UK trusts may exclude non-green investments – court
A decision by the High Court of England and Wales to allow the trustees of two charitable trusts to exclude investments on the grounds that they conflict with their environmental values could have wider impacts for other organisations involved in ...
Read More
Record growth in global renewables installation
A record 295GW of new renewables capacity was installed globally in 2021 and the International Energy Agency (IEA) is forecasting that installations will rise to about 320GW this year, despite elevated costs for both solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind. According ...
Read More
World close to breaching 1.5°C limit – study
The year the world breaches the 1.5°C global heating limit set by international governments for the first time is fast approaching, a new forecast shows. A report in The Guardian notes that the probability of one of the next ...
Read More
90% of Great Barrier Reef bleached this year – study
Watchdog warns on UK green tipping points
Jimmy Carter disputes Alaska wildlife refuge ruling
Artic mine's expansion bid blocked
California desalination plant permit turned down
Enviro Briefs
SAPVIA appoints new CEO
* The South African Photovoltaic Industry Association (SAPVIA) has appointed Dr Rethabile Melamu as CEO, effective immediately. A chemical and environmental engineer by training, Melamu has become renowned for her international expertise in the green economy and energy sectors, the renewable ...
Read More
Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant open for applications
* African researchers are invited to apply for this year’s Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer (JWO) Research Grant, for projects with a focus on the preservation of Africa’s natural environment. The winning project will receive $150 000 in funding support. The deadline for ...
Read More
Hong Kong to build offshore wind farm
* The first offshore wind farm in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China will be operational in 2027. Hong Kong SAR’s electricity provider Hong Kong Electric will build a 150MW offshore wind plant in the southwest of Lamma ...
Read More
Side Bars
Reserve celebrates birth of rhino calves
Rhino gives birth after poaching attemptThe Inverdoorn Game Reserve has welcomed two rhino calves, born a few days apart. This was good news after a poaching incident in December last year, when four rhinos were killed and their horns removed ...
Read More
Roving Reporters to train climate journalists
Climate writing opportunityYoung scientists are being offered unique, SA-focused climate crisis reporting training by an environmental journalism agency, Roving Reporters. The agency is setting out to train 20 environmental science writers, marine scientists, and others with science or other qualifications to ...
Read More