Environmental Focus
Climate concerns as government pushes new gas policy
As SA fast approaches the gas cliff, industry stakeholders and lawmakers are urging action to remove regulatory hurdles to fast-track projects and infrastructure development but civil society warns that draft regulations under the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Act disregard the ...
Read More
South Africa
Reserve Bank plans for climate risk in insurance sector
SA’s central bank plans to expand its examination of climate risk to the insurance industry, as it seeks to anticipate threats that can do far-reaching economic harm. ‘This year we put out our first climate-risk scenario, common stress test, where ...
Read More
Just Share slams Sasol's revised decarbonisation strategy
Sasol has ‘optimised’ its decarbonisation strategy to 2030, but there remain unanswered questions about whether the group will be able to meet its 2030 emissions targets given its slow pace so far and plans to increase production. A Cape Times ...
Read More
SA must decarbonise to keep pace with key markets
If SA doesn’t move faster to decarbonise its electricity grid, it risks losing access to key export markets, falling behind global competitors and taking a knock to its export earnings – a scenario that could put hundreds of thousands of ...
Read More
New standards for electric motors
Budget doubled in water leaks programme, SIU reports
Transmission proposals planned for November – Treasury
Former Eskom COO's 'revolving door' contract slated
Prominent law firm slams draft Minerals Bill
Court order sets out Tendele Coal matter deadlines
Colenso project set to create thousands of jobs
George retracts ‘flawed’ waste-tyre plan
Acid mine drainage turns Boksburg Lake red
Vaalkop Dam swimming in water hyacinth, locals warn
eThekwini to spend R10m to rehabilitate landfills
Wild Coast local flouts land rehabilitation order
NSPCA flags red tape and slow pace of justice
Baboon rights activists 'outraged' by new action plan
Dehorning rhinos more effective than surveillance
Marine company sues DFFE over 'rigged' tender
Municipality refused leave to appeal build order
Legalbrief Policy Watch
Reforms to unlock transmission investment
The Department of Electricity & Energy and National Treasury have announced reforms to unlock transmission investment and drive economic growth and development through the introduction of the independent transmission programme, notes a Policy Watch report. ‘The Department of Electricity & ...
Read More
Analyses
Quality of JETP financing 'suspect'
SA’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) is a multi-year project to assist SA with decarbonisation, with the support of governments around the world, including France, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and the European Union, also known as the International Partners ...
Read More
How Africa can amplify legal routes for justice
Climate change lawsuits have become a new way for countries to assert their rights against actions that degrade the environment. ‘But African countries have yet to fully exploit this route,’ writes Oluwabusayo Wuraola, lecturer in law, Anglia Ruskin University ...
Read More
Africa
Build up African markets to finance renewables – expert
Frontier economies, mostly located in Africa, would need to spend one-third of their GDP by 2030 to achieve renewable power generation goals under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) scenario, compared with about 11% of GDP for other emerging markets and ...
Read More
UN flags land demarcation in Eastern Mau Complex
A UN human rights expert called last week on the Kenyan Government to immediately stop ongoing land demarcation activities in the Eastern Mau Complex, warning that the process threatens the ancestral lands of the Ogiek people and breaches binding judgments ...
Read More
Zimbabwe to cull scores of elephants
Zimbabwe will cull dozens of elephants and distribute the meat for consumption to ease the ballooning population of the animals, its wildlife authority said last week. A News24 report notes that the country is home to the second-biggest elephant population ...
Read More
First-of-its-kind chimp census in Bwindi Park
Lesotho trout farming venture misreports donations
Foreigners arrested for smuggling invasive crayfish
World
Trump opens Alaskan wilderness up for drilling
Millions of acres of Alaska wilderness will lose federal protections and be exposed to drilling and mining in the Trump administration’s latest move to prioritise energy production over the shielding of the US’ open spaces. A report in The Guardian ...
Read More
Dismissed case may shape climate litigation
A German court’s decision to dismiss a Peruvian farmer’s climate claims against energy firm RWE could shape future climate litigation, experts have said. According to an Out-Law.com report, despite dismissing the case, which was supported by German NGO Germanwatch ...
Read More
Study makes the case for bolstering resilience
As climate hazards like floods and wildfires intensify – and global financial resources grow tighter – a new study by World Resources Institute (WRI) presents powerful evidence that bolstering funding for adaptation and resilience is not only urgent but also ...
Read More
UN ocean conference gets underway minus the US
Court vindicates Fukushima execs
Researchers design seawater-soluble plastic
Chinese researcher accused of smuggling biopathogen
Enviro Briefs
Activists return stolen 'Macron'
* Greenpeace activists have returned a wax figure of President Emmanuel Macron they had stolen from a Paris museum, staging a new stunt to protest against continuing ‘radioactive’ ties between France and Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine. The campaign group ...
Read More
Kigali wetlands get cycling paths
* Five wetlands under rehabilitation in Kigali will have 58.5km of a circuit of pedestrian and cycling pathways to boost recreation and sports in the capital, according to Martine Uwera of the Rwanda Environment Management Authority. ‘The wetlands, after rehabilitation ...
Read More
Side Bars
Pioneering KNP conservationist dies
Pioneering conservationist diesSharon Haussmann, a trailblazer in the field of conservation and the CEO of the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation, has died. Her death last week has sent ripples of grief across the conservation community, where she was widely ...
Read More
Skubu launches in Diepsloot
Refill store first for SASA’s first-of-a-kind refill store to reduce single-use plastic packaging, Skubu, has been launched in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, by Sonke in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Science, Technology & ...
Read More