SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

Jun

17

2025

By SETH ASARE OKYERE; LOUIS KUSI FRIMPONG; MATTHEW ABUNYEWAH; SETH OPOKU MENSAH and STEPHEN LEONARD MENSAH

Small towns are growing fast across Ghana – but environmental planning isn’t keeping up

SUSTAINABILITY

AFRICA’S urban future will be shaped not only by large cities and capitals but also by its many small and medium-sized towns. Large capital cities are no longer the hotspots of rapid urban growth. According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), small and medium-sized towns are growing faster than large cities. These smaller towns often start as rural settlements. Despite their rapid growth, many small towns lack infrastructure and planning capacity, leaving them vulnerable to environmental risks. Ghana offers a telling example. While the spotlight is often on the rapid growth of the two major cities, Accra and…

Jun

12

2025

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

70 rhinos safely arrive in Rwanda in unprecedented wildlife translocation

SUSTAINABILITY, MULTIMEDIA

ON Tuesday, the tenth of June, Rwanda welcomed dozens of four-footed new residents to the country as dozens of metal crates holding 70 southern white rhinos touched down on Rwandan soil. Rwanda’s Akagera National Park is the new home for the transplanted rhinos. They will graze on the park’s shrubs and gradually acclimatise to the environment. The rhinos' journey took them over 4,000 kilometres via roads and sky, from South Africa’s Munywana Conservancy in KwaZulu-Natal. The unprecedented translocation marks the largest cross-continental movement of rhinos ever attempted in Africa, helping to flip the continent’s conservation script, which is often headlined…

Jun

10

2025

By DAVID PHAHO and STEVEN MATOME MATHETSA

Africa’s power pools: what the G20 can do to help countries share electricity

SUSTAINABILITY

SOUTH Africa holds the presidency of the G20 this year. The group is made up of 19 of the world’s largest economies, the European Union and the African Union. A priority of South Africa’s G20 presidency is African connectivity: promoting cross-border energy trade and regional power pools as a way to share electricity across borders on the continent. David Phaho and Steven Mathetsa of the African Energy Leadership Centre set out how South Africa could use its presidency of the G20 to drive regional renewable energy sharing. What is a regional power pool? A regional energy power pool is where…

Jun

05

2025

By OLUWABUSAYO WURAOLA

Climate justice for Africa: 3 legal routes for countries that suffer the most harm

SUSTAINABILITY

Climate change lawsuits have become a new way for countries to assert their rights against actions that degrade the environment. But African countries have yet to fully exploit this route. In the Netherlands, the court found that greenhouse gas emissions breached the rights to life and private and family life that are protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. In Germany, the court found that the government had breached the Climate Protection Act by not setting out a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after 2030. This meant that future generations would unfairly bear the burden of trying to…

May

31

2025

By TEMILADE SESAN and LUCY H. BAKER

Nigerian and Kenyan farmers can be first step to making rural mini-grids more profitable and affordable

SUSTAINABILITY

IN Nigeria and Kenya, many small to medium farms and rural grain-milling businesses are not connected to the national electricity grid. They still use petrol or diesel generators for power. Energy, agriculture and development researchers Temilade Sesan, Lucy Baker and colleagues set out to discover how these agribusinesses could get electricity from renewable energy mini-grids at a price that would make the mini-grids commercially viable, affordable for the farmers, and able to provide an electricity supply for low-income rural households. What are mini-grids, and why are they important? Mini grids are small networks that generate and distribute electricity. They are…

May

28

2025

By SIMON MANDA

Malawi’s response to Cyclone Freddy offers lessons in managing disasters: first up, don’t leave people in the lurch

SUSTAINABILITY

MALAWI is one of the most disaster-prone countries in Africa. In the past 15 years, it has experienced 16 floods, one rainfall-related landslide, five storm-related disasters, and two severe droughts. Since 2019, Malawi has declared several national disasters. This creates a sense of a country in a permanent state of emergency. To make things worse, these climate-related disasters are increasing in frequency and severity. The damage to the economy, loss of life, and damage to health, transport systems and the environment are increasing. In February 2023, Cyclone Freddy struck Malawi, causing floods and mudslides that killed more than 1,200 people…

May

22

2025

By ZANDER VENTER; MEGAN DAVIES and SAMANTHA L. SCOTT

Satellite images reveal the dark side of household solar power – South Africa’s green transition is only for a few

SUSTAINABILITY

AS winter approaches, memories of the past haunt South Africans in more ways than one. The country has experienced years of rolling blackouts, known locally as load shedding. During the worst periods of these power cuts in 2022 and 2023, South Africans who did not own solar photovoltaic systems or generators would go without electricity for up to 12 hours a day. Due to the extent of the damaging power outages, solar power was adopted quickly in South Africa. For example, in 2020, smaller systems installed at homes or businesses made up just 38% of the country’s solar systems. At…

May

21

2025

By LARA FULLER

South Africa’s wattled cranes are no longer critically endangered: why the birds’ numbers are rising

SUSTAINABILITY

CRANES are some of the world’s most majestic birds, with 15 species found globally. Four of these are found in Africa. The wattled crane in South Africa was in decline, but seems to have turned a corner. Its numbers have increased from just 188 birds in 2000 to 304 today. Crane researcher Lara Fuller explains how the population’s recovery recently led to it being moved from Critically Endangered to Endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species. What is so special about wattled cranes? Wattled cranes are the largest crane species in Africa. They…

May

20

2025

By CYRILLE CHATELAIN; ADJIMA THIOMBIANO; BLANDINE MARIE IVETTE NACOULMA and MAMADOU LAMINE DIARRA

Burkina Faso and Mali’s fabulous flora: new plant life record released

SUSTAINABILITY

THE Illustrated Flora of Burkina Faso and Mali is the first comprehensive documentation of the remarkable plant diversity in these two West African countries. Written in French, the book is the outcome of decades of botanical research and scientific collaboration between institutions and botanists from Burkina Faso, Mali, France, Switzerland and Germany. For the first time, it provides a complete inventory of ferns and flowering plants in Burkina Faso and Mali. It catalogues 2,631 species – both native and introduced – with 2,115 identified in Burkina Faso, 1,952 in Mali, and 1,453 shared between both countries. Featuring over 800 photographs,…

May

13

2025

By LIAM CASSIDY; LIAM CASSIDY; JOSEPHINE BROWN and TILO ZIEHN

Heat extremes in southern Africa might continue even if net-zero emissions are achieved

SUSTAINABILITY

HUMAN emissions of greenhouse gases have caused rapid global warming. This has made high-impact, heat extreme events around the globe more and more intense over the past 70 years. Heat extremes, such as heat waves, can cause severe damage to infrastructure by damaging bridges and railways. They also harm ecosystems and can lead to loss of life. Greenhouse gas emissions reached new highs recently. Recent studies suggest that the world will miss the globally agreed target of keeping the global temperature increase to below 1.5°C more than it was in pre-industrial times. If the global temperature increase exceeds 1.5°C, scientists…