SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

Mar

31

2021

S.Africa proposes reduced 2030 greenhouse gas emission targets

SUSTAINABILITY

SOUTH Africa's government has released a revised climate change policy document for public comment, significantly reducing the upper limit target for harmful carbon emissions seen over the next decade, senior officials said. The draft Nationally Determined Contribution document, which updates a previous 2015 study, outlines the mitigation, adaptation and financing policies Africa's worst polluter and most industrialised country will pursue. Once finalised, the NDC will be deposited at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change before November. A key new policy proposal shows that greenhouse gas emission targets will likely be in a range of 398 million tonnes of…

Mar

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Coal-powered industry plan for South Africa’s ‘Eden’ sparks green outcry

SUSTAINABILITY

KIM HARRISBERG SOUTH Africa's northern Limpopo province is known for its lush forests, national parks, fruit farms and heritage sites - but lately, its green image has come under threat from a proposed multi-billion-dollar industrial mega-project. Made up of a cluster of 20 steel and other metalworking plants and fuelled by a coal-fired power station, supporters say the project would create much-needed local jobs, while opponents warn it would spell catastrophe for the climate and health. "We are worried that if the project goes ahead, we will be wearing masks for years to come, not because of coronavirus but because…

Mar

27

2021

By The African Mirror

“The man who stopped the desert”

SUSTAINABILITY

YACOUBA Sawadogo murmurs advice to his sons as they press a sapling into the red earth using a centuries-old technique that he has adapted to conjure a forest from Burkina Faso's rain-starved soil. The farmer who is well into his 70s is hailed across his province as "the man who stopped the desert". He won that title after tweaking a method of growing plants in pits to trap water - essential in the hardscrabble region fringing the Sahara. After a terrible drought ravaged the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s, many of Sawadogo's neighbours abandoned their farms in northern Burkina…

Mar

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Nairobi is rapidly losing its green spaces: this could open the door to more diseases

SUSTAINABILITY

THERE'S been widespread concern in Kenya over the shrinking of green spaces in Nairobi, the capital city. Most recently, there was uproar over the construction of a raised highway. This resulted in the felling of hundreds of trees, though protests managed to save the life of one 100-year-old fig tree. ERIC FÈVRE, Professor of Veterinary Infectious Diseases, University of Liverpool and International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya, University of Liverpool JAMES HASSELL, Wildlife Veterinarian with Smithsonian's Global Health Program, and adjunct Assistant Professor, Yale University It was also proposed that part of the highway run through Uhuru park – one of…

Mar

26

2021

By The African Mirror

African elephants face extinction – Red List

SUSTAINABILITY

EMMA FARGE AFRICAN elephants living in forests and savannas are increasingly threatened with extinction, the Red List of species in trouble showed on Thursday, as conservationists called for an urgent end to poaching. The new assessments by the International Union for Conservation of Nature underscore the persistent pressures faced by the two species of elephants in Africa due to poaching for ivory and human encroachment. "We must urgently put an end to poaching and ensure that sufficient suitable habitat for both forest and savannah elephants is conserved," said Bruno Oberle, IUCN Director General. The Swiss-based body's latest survey said the…

Jul

18

2020

By The African Mirror

Niger Delta: young men face exclusion and violence in one of the most polluted places on Earth

SUSTAINABILITY

MODESTA TOCHI ALOZIE, Researcher at the Urban Insititute, University of Sheffield, University of Sheff DECADES of oil spills and gas flaring have transformed the Niger Delta into one of the most polluted places on Earth. About 300 oil spills occur in the region each year and in 2011, a spill at Shell’s Bonga oil fields released 40,000 barrels. Over 350 farming communities were affected, and 30,000 fishermen were forced to abandon their livelihoods. Although local people are supposed to be compensated for oil spills caused by technical failures, this rarely happens because of a flawed process for determining the cause…

Jul

14

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Better African heatwave data could save lives, shield economies’

SUSTAINABILITY

KIM HARRISBERG HEATWAVES over the last century in sub-Saharan Africa have not been properly recorded, undermining early warning systems to save lives and prevent economic losses caused by soaring temperatures, a University of Oxford report said on Monday. Researchers found the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), the world's biggest database of extreme weather events, includes data on just two African heatwaves since 1900, compared with dozens in recent decades in other global regions. A lack of expertise and poor governance on the issue, along with limited observational networks contributed to the shortfall, they said. "Both real-world observations and climate modelling show…

Jul

13

2020

By The African Mirror

Shorter hours, cleaner air? Egypt may extend its COVID-19 evening curfew

SUSTAINABILITY

MENNA A. FAROUK AS coronavirus restrictions ease, business is rebounding in Cairo's cafes, restaurants and shops. In the evenings, the sounds of street vendors plying their wares blends with the honking of horns, as the city gets back to normal. But the evening revival may not last long. To try to hold onto dramatic improvements in air quality during the city's lockdown, the government now has proposed to permanently ban late-night shopping and dining, in an effort to keep cars at home and hold down electricity use. "It is mainly for environmental, economic and social reasons," Khaled Qassem, a spokesman for the…

Jul

12

2020

By The African Mirror

Pandemic-hit nations urged to hold nerve on climate finance for the poor

SUSTAINABILITY

MEGAN ROWLING EAST African nation Rwanda was one of the first countries to submit a stronger climate action plan to the United Nations this year - and it hopes that can serve as a basis for a "better, green COVID recovery", its environment minister said this week. The plan itself, published in May, does not mention the coronavirus pandemic. But Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya said the country was betting the measures it contains to drive a lower-carbon economy - in areas from agriculture to energy - will also make it more resilient to both climate and health crises. The problem, she…

Jul

10

2020

By The African Mirror

Ghanaian activists sue government to save forest from mine

SUSTAINABILITY

KWASI GYAMFI ASIEDU ENVIRONMENTAL activists have sued Ghana's government to stop a proposed mining project in a protected national forest, which they say endangers their health and well-being, amid growing calls to increase nature reserves to combat climate change. The proposed mine in the Atewa Range Forest is part of a $2 billion deal signed with China, which will gain access to bauxite - used to make aluminium - in exchange for financing infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges in Ghana. Seven local advocacy groups and four citizens claim that mining in the forest violates their constitutional right to…