One wears an impeccably tailored navy blue suit. The other sports a giraffe-print dashiki shirt. Meet the renewable-energy odd couple, the environmental activist and his onetime target, the chief of Italy’s largest utility. A year ago, Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace International, and Francesco Starace were sworn enemies, after the group said Enel SpA’s coal plants … [Read more...]
Join the Global Climate March chorus
The weekend before the biggest UN climate conference of the decade in Paris, the world will stand together in a weekend of global action in world-wide People's Climate March. This is to send a powerful message to governments meeting in Paris: keep fossil fuels in the ground and finance a just transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. Last year, the People's Climate March … [Read more...]
Renewables to meet energy needs in Africa and beyond
Attracting 3 600 delegates from 82 countries, the South African International Renewable Energy Conference was officially opened by the South African Minister of Energy, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, in Cape Town today. The sixth in a series of International Renewable Energy Conferences (IRECs), first held in Bonn, Germany in 2004, SAIREC is the first such conference to take … [Read more...]
The time is now for SA’s energy revolution
It's time to look up, not down, for South Africa's energy solution, says The African Climate Reality Project. In an apparent state of conflict over its energy policies, South Africa flounders as a victim of load shedding in the grip of Eskom’s continued reliance upon coal and now also must seriously review its ‘intended nationally determined contribution’ (INDC) and declare … [Read more...]
A different type of grid is needed to solve SA’s energy challenge
South Africa would get a much better return on its energy investments if it planned a smarter and more flexible electricity grid, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) researcher Steve Hedden said on Tuesday. A better grid would also boost the contribution of wind and solar energy. Government’s response to power shortages and load-shedding has been a thrust towards more power … [Read more...]
Don’t get lost in a sea of climate information
There was a gathering of the Climate Knowledge Brokers Group to road-test the forthcoming ‘Manifesto’ on climate knowledge. Read the highlights of the event and get a preview of the themes of the Manifesto – which will be launched on 17 September. The Climate Knowledge Brokers Group (CKB) is a network of organisations and professionals focused on improving the quality and … [Read more...]
Next decade decisive for Earth’s future
The next 10 years will be decisive when it comes to the planet's future - what we do (or don't) will play out over geologic time. It could, if we set our minds to it, be the decade when the planet's use of fossil fuels peaks and then rapidly declines. We've built a movement that, for the moment, is starting to tie down the fossil fuel industry: from the tar sands of … [Read more...]
Stellenbosch team may have solved crucial solar puzzle
It is a problem that has so far stumped even Google’s brainy engineers – how to generate cheap solar electricity using a small-scale array of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy. Now a team at a South African university – led by a former Intel strategic planner – believes they have cracked it. Once they have completed a prototype system in October they have big plans for … [Read more...]
Islamic leaders call for rapid phase out of fossil fuels
Islamic leaders have issued a clarion call to 1.6bn Muslims around the world to work towards phasing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and a 100% renewable energy strategy. The grand mufti’s of Lebanon and Uganda endorsed the Islamic declaration on climate change, along with prominent Islamic scholars and teachers from 20 countries, at a symposium in Istanbul. Their … [Read more...]
How will Africa adapt to green energy?
US President Barack Obama has unveiled a final set of rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a big initiative which would form a major plank of his legacy as he winds down his term in office. In what has been termed the strongest action ever taken in the United States to combat climate change, the rules will see the country’s hundreds of coal-fired—and polluting—power … [Read more...]
Fight against Limpopo coal power station raises water issues
Earthlife Africa Johannesburg is determined to stop yet another coal-fired power station from being built in water-stressed Limpopo. Last month, attorneys in the Centre for Environmental Rights’ Pollution & Climate Change team filed further papers on behalf of environmental justice group Earthlife Africa Johannesburg in this battle. Under the National Environmental … [Read more...]
Archbishop Tutu wants renewable energy target of 100% by 2050
Climate change is one of the greatest moral challenges of our time. It threatens the health of our planet and people; especially the poorest and most vulnerable. It threatens our children’s future and everything we hold dear. It is time for all of us to wake up and take action together — in our local communities, nationally and globally, as well as in our daily lives. Moral … [Read more...]
Norway aims to become Europe’s ‘green battery pack’
Norway's 937 hydroelectric-generating plants provide the country with 96 percent of its electricity—making it the world’s sixth-largest hydropower producer. Now, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology are figuring out how to spread the water power wealth to other nations by turning Norway into the “green battery pack” of Europe. The idea is to … [Read more...]
