SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

May

31

2022

Africa’s $25-billion climate change war chest

SUSTAINABILITY

ZUBAIDA MABUNO ISMAIL, BIRD STORY AGENCY THE African Development Bank plans to commit some 25 billion US dollars (US$) to programmes to mitigate the impact of Climate Change - among them, clean energy and emergency food production - over the next three years. This is just a fraction of the estimated amount - between US$1.3 trillion and US$1.6 trillion - that the continent requires to tackle the threat by 2030. Speaking at the 57th Annual Meeting of the bank in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the bank's president, Akinwumi Adesina, said Africa needs more resources to combat the effects of climate…

May

20

2022

By The African Mirror

Tanzania’s huge green energy pivot

SUSTAINABILITY

SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY ON April 29, Tanzania announced it had inked an agreement with exploration firm Equinor and with Exxon Mobil to develop a vast liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant worth 30 billion US dollars (USD). Tanzania has an estimated 57 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves but disagreements with oil corporations over production-sharing had stalled investments in the sector. However, President Samia Suluhu Hassan renewed negotiations with energy firms to revive the construction of offshore natural gas projects in 2023. But while the East African nation looks to prop up its gas industry, its renewable energy sector…

May

19

2022

By The African Mirror

Pollution kills nine million people, Africa hardest hit

SUSTAINABILITY

GLORIA DICKIE WORSENING outdoor air pollution and toxic lead poisoning have kept global deaths from environmental contamination at an estimated 9 million per year since 2015 – countering modest progress made in tackling pollution elsewhere, a team of scientists reported Tuesday. Air pollution from industrial processes along with urbanization drove a 7% increase in pollution-related deaths from 2015 to 2019, according to the scientists’ analysis of data on global mortality and pollution levels. "We're sitting in the stew pot and slowly burning," said Richard Fuller, a study co-author and head of the global nonprofit Pure Earth. But unlike climate change, malaria, or…

May

05

2022

By The African Mirror

Evicting people from Tanzania’s Ngorongoro conservation area is a bad idea, there are alternatives

SUSTAINABILITY

THE Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania is a spectacular area made up of expansive plains, forests and savanna. It’s also home to a huge caldera – a depression that forms when a volcano erupts and collapses – known as the Ngorongoro Crater. The Conservation Area, covering about 8,292km2, is special for the large number of wildlife that live there which led to it being declared a World Heritage site in 1979. Authors PABLO MANZANO, Ikerbasque Research fellow, bc3 - Basque Centre for Climate Change LUCAS YAMAT, PhD candidate, bc3 - Basque Centre for Climate Change It’s also special because…

May

02

2022

By The African Mirror

India’s UPL applies to flush toxic pesticides into South African sea

SUSTAINABILITY

INDIAN agrochemicals manufacturer UPL Ltd has applied for permission to flush water contaminated by a toxic pesticide spill in South Africa's city of Durban directly into the sea or the sewerage system, the company said. The municipal authorities have judged the pesticides -- which were being contained in a dam that overflowed during devastating floods that struck the eastern port city earlier this month -- as being "highly toxic to the environment". Looters set fire to a UPL warehouse containing the pesticides during a wave of looting and arson in July last year. That caused a chemical spill which shut down…

Apr

28

2022

By The African Mirror

SA’s green transition to cost over $64-billion

SUSTAINABILITY

PROMIT MUKHERJEE SOUTH AFRICA'S efforts to wean itself off coal and focus on renewables, battery storage, electric vehicles and setting up a green hydrogen economy would require funding of over a trillion rand ($63.70 billion) by 2030, a top government official said on Tuesday. In November, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union agreed to offer a $8.5 billion package to help South Africa accelerate a transition from coal. South Africa is the world's 12th biggest emitter of climate-warming gases and the biggest in Africa. It is a coal-intensive economy where a fleet of decades-old and inefficient…

Apr

27

2022

By The African Mirror

Climate may not directly drive conflict but it’s critical for building peace

SUSTAINABILITY

CLIMATE change isn’t a direct driver of conflict. Most scientists agree on this and it’s reflected in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II Report. There isn’t a straight line between climate-related risks and conflict-related outcomes. The report compares the impacts of climate change with those of other global trends. The latter include “biodiversity loss, overall unsustainable consumption of natural resources, land and ecosystem degradation, rapid urbanisation, human demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities and a pandemic”. It finds that: Compared to other socioeconomic factors the influence of climate on conflict is assessed as relatively weak. But the…

Apr

21

2022

By The African Mirror

Early warnings for floods in South Africa: engineering for future climate change

SUSTAINABILITY

SEVERE weather, rain and flooding are at the forefront of the minds of many South Africans, especially those in KwaZulu-Natal. Early last week (11-12 April 2022), the province’s coast received heavy rain, with some areas recording over 300mm in 24 hours. This is about a third of the annual rainfall in KwaZulu-Natal. The rain was caused by a strong cut-off low weather system off the east coast of southern Africa. Cut-off lows frequently occur off this coast during the autumn months. These systems can cause localised flooding as well as large wave events. The port city of Durban (in the…

Apr

18

2022

By The African Mirror

SA floods “a teachable moment”

SUSTAINABILITY

KIM HARRISBERG AS downpours swamped South Africa's third-largest city this week, residents lucky enough to still have internet access and power shared harrowing videos of highways turned into rivers, collapsed buildings and flood-capsized cars. The deluge has killed more than 300 people in KwaZulu-Natal province, and with more heavy rain expected on the weekend residents and experts questioned whether the city had prepared sufficiently for worsening weather extremes. "We don't have the government's attention," complained Siya Gumede, 26, outside his home in Shakaskraal township north of Durban - a home now with only walls after a neighbouring church collapsed onto…

Apr

16

2022

By The African Mirror

Local knowledge adds value to mapping flood risk in South Africa’s informal settlements

SUSTAINABILITY

THE current flooding in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban is dire and reports indicate that hundreds of people have died and thousands directly affected. Several months’ worth of rainfall has fallen in a day or so, and the effects have been catastrophic. The problem of floods in Durban is not new. Between 1980 and 2010, there were over 77 disastrous flood events in KwaZulu-Natal province and others. The flood events can be categorised as disastrous when lives are lost, people are displaced and property is destroyed. Authors GARIKAI MARTIN MEMBELE, PhD researcher at University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of KwaZulu-Natal…