carbon emissions - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Africa now emits as much carbon as it stores: landmark new study

A landmark new study has found that, in the last decade, the African continent has started emitting more carbon than it stores. When the total amount of carbon that is sequestered by natural ecosystems (such as the soil and plants in grasslands, savannas and forests) exceeds the amount of total carbon emissions within a system, it’s referred to as a net sink of carbon. But, the study found, as natural ecosystems are converted for agricultural purposes, the carbon storage capacity is decreasing – while the rate of emissions is increasing. Yolandi Ernst of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Climate dividends’ can help cut emissions and poverty, researchers say

ENVIRONMENT

SONIA ELKS HANDING 5% of the money rich nations raise from carbon emissions charges to sub-Saharan Africa would counter the impact of rising prices on the world's poorest people, researchers said on Tuesday. More and more wealthy countries are seeking to impose emissions charges on companies, but doing so risks pushing up the price of essential goods, which hits the poor hardest, said a study published in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers said that risk could be mitigated by handing the proceeds to households in the form of "climate dividends" and donating 5% to the poorest countries. "You can create…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

“SA on track to reduce carbon emissions”

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SOUTH AFRICA remains on track to reduce carbon emissions and will achieve its set target 10 years earlier than expected, President Cyril Ramaphosa has told the virtual Summit on Climate Change, attended by 40 world leaders and convened by US president Joe Biden. Ramaphosa reaffirmed SA’s commitment to building renewable energy generating capacity of over 17 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030. He said: “Last year we finalised our National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, coordinating adaptation actions at all levels of government. We have also adopted a Low Emissions Development Strategy in pursuit of a just transition to…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

S.Africa proposes reduced 2030 greenhouse gas emission targets

ENVIRONMENT

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…