SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

May

31

2025

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…

May

03

2025

By NQOBILE XABA

South Africa’s shift from coal to renewables: how it’s going

SUSTAINABILITY

JUST over 74% of South Africa’s electricity still comes from burning coal. In 2021, the country negotiated the Just Energy Transition Partnership with Germany, the UK, France, the US and the European Union. They committed to providing South Africa with US$8.5 billion (R157 billion) to move away from coal to renewable energy. (In March 2025, US President Donald Trump withdrew the US and its share of the funding, about US$1.5 billion, or R27.7 billion, from the arrangement.) Researcher Nqobile Xaba talks to The Conversation Africa about how the partnership is going. What has the partnership done so far? After its…

Apr

30

2025

By ESLEM BEN AROUS and ELEANOR SCERRI

Humans lived in African rainforests 150,000 years ago, far earlier than believed – new research

SUSTAINABILITY

OUR human species emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, but scientists don’t yet have a clear picture of what kind of natural environment we evolved in. Until recently, the dominant idea was that grasslands and savannahs were the ecological “cradle” of human beings. Environments like rainforests were considered to be barriers to human expansion, and inhabited only much later in human history. This view is out of step with research in Asia, however. There, more and more evidence has been found of sophisticated behaviours and advanced cognition in ancient rainforest contexts. Humans lived in a rainforest environment on Sumatra…

Apr

24

2025

By STEPHEN APPIAH TAKYI and OWUSU AMPONSAH

Flooding incidents in Ghana’s capital are on the rise. Researchers chase the cause

SUSTAINABILITY

URBAN flooding is a major problem in the global south. In West and Central Africa, more than 4 million people were affected by flooding in 2024. In Ghana, cities suffer damage from flooding every year. Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, has established a task force to find ways of improving flood resilience in the country. This is partly driven by an increase in flooding incidents in cities such as Accra and Kumasi in the last decade. We are urban planning and sustainability scholars. In a recent paper, we analysed whether flooding in Accra, Ghana’s capital, was caused by climate change…

Apr

23

2025

By CELIA DEANE-DRUMMOND

Three ways Pope Francis influenced the global climate movement

SUSTAINABILITY

THE death of Pope Francis has been announced by the Vatican. I first met the late Pope Francis at the Vatican after a conference called Saving Our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth in July 2018. My colleagues and I sensed something momentous was happening at the heart of the church. At that time, I was helping to set up the new Laudato Si’ research institute at the Jesuit Hall at the University of Oxford. This institute is named after the Pope’s 2015 encyclical (a letter to bishops outlining church policy) on climate change. Its mission is…