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Tuesday, December 8, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines today:

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa has extended the deadline for comments on State-owned electricity producer Eskom's revised tariff application to December 14.

Nersa said that this was to enable stakeholders and the public to comment on Eskom's revised application, which was submitted at the end of November.

Eskom has lowered its request for a tariff increase to 35% a year from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2013, down from 45% a year.

Nersa said that the dates for conducting public hearings would remain unchanged. Public hearings on Eskom's revised application would be conducted in all provinces between January 11 and 21.

President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka says that rich nations at the Copenhagen climate summit should commit 40-billion-dollars a year in new money to help Africa tackle the consequences of global warming.

He says he wants to see a willingness by rich countries to dig into their pockets to enable low-income countries to adapt to climate change.

Kaberuka says that climate change is costing this continent almost 3% of GDP a year. By translating that into numbers, the continent needed about 40-billion-dollars a year.

Negotiations began in the Danish capital on Monday between 190 countries on a treaty designed to curb emissions of greenhouse gases and combat the effects of climate change, including rising seas, desertification and floods.

Also making headlines:

The Merseta signs a skills development deal with an Eastern Cape university.
A German-backed solar water heater training facility is launched in Soweto.
The world's press urges action on climate change.
And, Econet launches a new solar handset in Burundi.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.