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Climate Change News

New Swedish venture eyes fossil fuel-free steel production in 3 years

By: Reuters 24th February 2021 Swedish steel venture H2 Green Steel is planning to build a fossil fuel-free steel plant in the north of Sweden, including a sustainable hydrogen facility, with production starting in 2024, it said on Tuesday. The Lulea-based venture, which is in the process of closing 50 million euros ($60.7... →

Botha nears end of solo transatlantic row

By: Simone Liedtke 22nd February 2021 South African adventurer and former naval officer Zirk Botha is days away from finishing his solo transatlantic ocean row, from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro, during which he will have covered 7 200 km, or 4 000 nautical miles. Botha left Cape Town on December 19, 2020, and is set to arrive in Rio... →

Zirk Botha's route from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro.

Sasol upscales renewables roll-out ambition to 900 MW, starts plotting big green-hydrogen role

By: Terence Creamer 22nd February 2021 JSE-listed Sasol announced on Monday that it would pursue a 900 MW renewable-energy roll-out at its Secunda and Sasolburg complexes by 2030, raising its initial deployment target of 600 MW by 50%. President and CEO Fleetwood Grobler said that the upscaled plan would be pursued in partnership with... →

The Secunda complex, in Mpumalanga

Storage high on the agenda for emerging economies

19th February 2021 Energy storage coupled with renewable energy ensures less intermittent supply of power, thereby solving balancing and system reliability issues, the Africa Energy Indaba stated in a January press release. →

SHAKING UP THE INDUSTRY Energy storage technologies are viewed as a potential game-changer for widespread adoption of renewable energy generation throughout Africa

Forests absorbing more CO2 than previously believed

By: Rebecca Campbell 19th February 2021 Research by biologists at West Virginia University (WVU), in the US state of the same name, has established that trees around the globe are consuming greater amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) than previously believed. This means that forests are even more important as CO2 ‘sinks’ and play a much... →

Rising demand underpins renewables’ importance

19th February 2021 As demand rises for more accessible renewable energy, the Africa Energy Indaba conference discussions are set to underscore various new avenues for innovative financing to steer Africa’s ever-changing energy landscape towards sustainability. →

RESILIENT INDUSTRY The renewables sector is proving its resilience in the midst of a crisis

IBM commits to net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030

By: Schalk Burger 18th February 2021 Information technology multinational IBM has committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 2030, and aims to procure 75% of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2025 and 90% by 2030. The company aims to reduce its GHG emissions by 65% by 2025 against the baseline... →

'Post-pandemic recovery plans must focus on growth aligned with sustainable agendas', says Creecy

By: Simone Liedtke 18th February 2021 As climate change is one of the new global realities, Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy has averred that “post-pandemic recovery plans must focus on growth aligned with sustainable agendas”. South Africa is in need of a better understanding of the climate transition risk... →

TIPS encourages South Africa to leverage just transition imperatives already in place

By: Marleny Arnoldi 18th February 2021 According to Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS), South Africa is in a position where it has a multitude of policies, processes and interventions that could be leveraged towards affecting a just transition to a green economy. During a development dialogue webinar hosted by the... →

Greenpeace calls on Creecy to revise weakening minimum emission standards

By: Simone Liedtke 17th February 2021 Nongovernmental organisation Greenpeace Africa has called on Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy to revise the weakening of the minimum emission standards (MES) to avoid further air pollution. The organisation has also requested the Department of Environment, Forestry and... →

TPI warns that most large firms have not gone clean enough to meet Paris agreement

By: Marleny Arnoldi 17th February 2021 The Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) has warned that 86%, or 95 out of 111, of global publicly listed firms surveyed in heavy industries have failed to prepare for the “transition decade”. Research done by the initiative points to an $856-billion climate risk, which is the combined market cap... →

Eskom could launch bidding for repurposing and repowering of Komati within two months

By: Terence Creamer 16th February 2021 State-owned power utility Eskom is preparing a pioneering request for proposals (RFP) for the repowering and repurposing of the Komati power station, in Mpumalanga, which is among the first four coal plants scheduled for decommissioning in the coming few years. Eskom just energy transition office... →

The Komati power station

Upheaval is coming to South Africa over the shift away from coal

By: Bloomberg 16th February 2021 A photograph in the entrance hall at Komati Power Station shows the plant in better times, its nine generating units belching steam and smoke into the night sky. Those days are never coming back: Komati’s sole remaining working unit is facing closure within two years under plans by state power... →

TIPS research initiative to identify stumbling blocks to local green entrepreneurship

By: Schalk Burger 15th February 2021 A research initiative launched by independent nonprofit economic research institution Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) aims to support sustainable finance reforms in favour of local green enterprises (LGEs) and identify and unlock barriers that green and social entrepreneurs face. The... →

First sustainable energy youth summit concludes with call for clean energy

By: Schalk Burger 12th February 2021 The first Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) Youth Summit, held virtually by sustainable energy organisation SEforAll, concluded on February 11, with calls from participants for progress on clean energy and sustainable development. Further, a new SEforAll ‘Be Bold’ campaign will be launched in... →

Schneider Electric announces long-term commitments to achieve sustainability goals

By: Schalk Burger 12th February 2021 Energy management and automation multinational Schneider Electric has announced six long-term commitments to help it achieve its sustainability goals by 2025. This forms part of its new Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) programme, which will be implemented from 2021 to 2025. →

ESG is key to future resilience, says Mgojo

By: Marleny Arnoldi 11th February 2021 In the recent past, environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria were predominantly focused on environmental impact and related governance issues, such as climate change. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the everyday lives of people across the world, more companies are... →

Exxaro Resources CEO Mxolisi Mgojo

Green hydrogen and powerfuels could revive ailing PetroSA, unlock green steel and create €160bn export platform

By: Terence Creamer 9th February 2021 The combination of South Africa’s world-class wind, solar and land resources, its platinum group metals reserves, as well as its historical experience in industrial-scale synthetic-fuel manufacture, position the country strongly for the production of green hydrogen and tradeable synthetic... →

Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande on South Africa's comparative advantage when it came to the production of renewable hydrogen and green powerfuels.

Danfoss merges heating, cooling businesses to tackle climate change

By: Donna Slater 9th February 2021 Electronics and technological solutions company Danfoss has changed its group structure to combine the heating and cooling segments into Danfoss Climate Solutions in an effort to intensify its focus on the “green agenda” in attractive global markets. The company notes that “everywhere in the... →

Trees are absorbing more carbon dioxide than previously believed

By: Rebecca Campbell 9th February 2021 Research by biologists at West Virginia University, in the US state of the same name, has established that trees around the globe are consuming greater amounts of carbon dioxide than previously believed. This means that forests are even more important as carbon dioxide ‘sinks’ and play a much... →

Photo by West Virginia University
Dr Justin Mathias in a West Virginia forest

At this rate, South Africa will not meet Paris Agreement decarbonisation goal, says PwC

By: Marleny Arnoldi 5th February 2021 Professional services firm PwC says the world needs to cut carbon intensity five times faster to meet the Paris Agreement commitments. A decarbonisation rate of 11.7% a year is now required to keep warming within 1.5 °C, which is five times greater than the 2.4% rate that was achieved going... →

DBSA launches green bond

By: Creamer Media Reporter 3rd February 2021 Development finance institution, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has announced the launch of its first green bond of €200-million, which was issued through a private placement with the French development finance institution, the Agence Française de Développement. The bond will be... →

Energy multinational outlines South Africa’s $100bn green hydrogen export opportunity

By: Terence Creamer 2nd February 2021 French energy multinational Engie says that South Africa is ideally positioned, by virtue of its solar and wind endowments, to emerge as a global leader in the production of green hydrogen and derivative carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals, which could generate domestic and export revenues worth... →

Sibanye highlights importance of wetland preservation

By: Marleny Arnoldi 2nd February 2021 Precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater has highlighted the importance of preserving wetlands, as it celebrates World Wetlands Day on February 2. Sibanye operates in South Africa and the US, which have 26 and 41 Ramsar sites, respectively. In 1971, the Ramsar Convention for the protection of... →

Global coalition formed to drive net-zero shift in hard-to-decarbonise transport and industrial sectors

By: Terence Creamer 27th January 2021 A new global partnership has been formally launched in an effort to accelerate the decarbonisation of seven heavy industrial and transport sectors that together represent 30% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and where carbon-abatement pathways have yet to be defined. Known as the ‘Mission... →

AfDB launches $25bn programme to help Africa adapt to climate change

By: Donna Slater 27th January 2021 African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina launched the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) on January 25 to mobilise $25-billion to scale up and accelerate climate change adaptation actions across Africa. The launch announcement occurred during the Climate Adaptation... →

Climate change is melting ice in every continent, new study shows

By: Bloomberg 25th January 2021 Melting on the ice sheets has accelerated so much over the past three decades that it’s now in line with the worst-case climate warming scenarios outlined by scientists. A total of 28 trillion metric tons of ice was lost between 1994 and 2017, according to a research paper published in The... →

Pandemic management, vaccine to shape economies in 2021

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 21st January 2021 Three factors will determine the trajectory of the global economy in 2021, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu chief global economist Dr Ira Kalish has said. Speaking during a virtual executive conference hosted by professional services organisation Deloitte on January 20, he said the path of the pandemic... →

Report views decarbonising supply chains as ‘major opportunity’

By: Simone Liedtke 21st January 2021 The commitment to tackling climate change is accelerating in all sectors of society, with net-zero pledges from companies, cities, States and regions having doubled in the past year. The World Economic Forum (WEF) says decarbonising supply chains is a major opportunity for companies to put these... →

Project launched to define role of finance in South Africa and India’s ‘just transitions’

By: Terence Creamer 19th January 2021 A new multi-partner initiative has been launched with the aim of defining the role that finance can and should play in supporting both South Africa and India’s aspirations to implement “just transitions” to more climate-resilient economies. The ‘Just Transition Finance Roadmaps in South Africa... →

New report highlights growing financing gap for climate adaptation

By: Terence Creamer 14th January 2021 The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is warning that current levels of climate adaptation finance are woefully inadequate to support the planning and projects needed to limit the social and economic damage that will arise as a result of intensifying climate change. Distinct from... →

Danish PM to lead IEA commission on making energy transition people-centered

By: Terence Creamer 11th January 2021 The International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced the creation of a high-level global commission, headed by Danish PM Mette Frederiksen, to investigate how to ensure that people are placed at the heart of the unfolding global clean-energy transition. Speaking during a virtual briefing on... →

Dr Fatih Birol

Earth’s margin for error narrows after another year of record heat

By: Bloomberg 8th January 2021 Another year of record-high heat punctuated a decade-long increase in global temperatures that has placed the Earth’s economies dangerously close to climate tipping points. Those are the conclusions published Friday by European Union scientists. Despite pandemic-induced lockdowns of the global... →

Ramaphosa appoints Climate Change Commission members

By: African News Agency 18th December 2020 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed members of the Climate Change Coordinating Commission established to coordinate and oversee the transition towards a low-carbon and climate change resilient economy. A statement from the Presidency late on Thursday said the commission, an... →

President Cyril Ramaphosa

Siemens sees train boom from climate-conscious spending on rail

By: Bloomberg 18th December 2020 Siemens sees the rail market bouncing back from a coronavirus slump, aided by an international push to slash carbon-dioxide emissions from transport. The global market for trains and related infrastructure will expand by a quarter over the next three years to exceed pre-coronavirus levels,... →

Polluters make some net-zero progress, climate action 100+ says

By: Bloomberg 17th December 2020 Three years after some of the world’s biggest investors joined forces to pressure the largest producers of greenhouse gases to cut emissions, about half of them have made net-zero commitments. Climate Action 100+, an investor group with 545 members managing a combined $52 trillion of assets, said... →

Planet-warming emissions from buildings put climate goals at risk

By: Reuters 17th December 2020 Planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from buildings and construction are jeopardising global goals to keep devastating climate change at bay, a UN-backed coalition warned on Wednesday, after data showed they hit an all-time high in 2019. The use of coal, oil and natural gas for heating,... →

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