Energy

As the climate crisis intensifies, how we produce and consume energy is under growing scrutiny. The energy sector contributes over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with electricity and heat generation as the largest culprits. According to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), renewable electrification of end-use sectors could mitigate at least 20% of emissions by 2050

MACUA, a partner organisation of the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) in Cape Town, has recently launched a new podcast series.

Namibia is planning a series of million-dollar investments to become a major green hydrogen supplier to Europe and Japan as early as 2028. Both the European Union and the Japanese government have supported the venture, in the hopes of getting new imports to meet their climate change goals. In their new landing page, Oxpeckes brings together a series of articles exploring proposed projects, and what they look like from the ground.

As African countries embark on net zero transitions, it is critical that Global North actors align their investments to specific and localised understandings of ‘Just Transitions’

An investigation by Oxpeckers and Climate Home found coal-reliant communities in South Africa have scarce details on how funds for reskilling workers from its $8.5 billion deal will be implemented.

SA’s government is moving at speed to phase-out coal as the country’s leading energy source. But what does this mean for the communities who have for so long relied on this carbon for their livelihoods?

The Inflation Reduction Act is seen as an expression of climate pragmatism by some and a Faustian bargain with the fossil fuel industry by others. What exactly is it?

Civil society organisations in South Africa are proposing a post-WW2-style economic recovery programme to steer energy transformation for the state utility that echoes Roosevelt’s New Deal in the USA. But the country has been thrown into an even deeper energy crisis, following an explosion at one of the country’s newly-minted power stations. Could this make the ‘Green New Eskom’ idea even more relevant?

COP26 takes place against the backdrop of nationalist health policies with daunting consequences, failed promises to adequately scale up climate action and financial support, and an unprecedented push for false solutions that divert global attention from the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels.

In August 2019, the South African oil giant Sasol and the Italian behemoth Eni were granted environmental authorisation to drill for hydrocarbons in the middle of seven ‘marine protected areas’. The ensuing uproar delivered no fewer than 47 appeals, which were all knocked back by the national government. But in mid-June 2021, papers were filed in the North Gauteng High Court that represent the strongest challenge yet. The question remains: will the madness stop?

Civil society groups in the SADC region, East Africa, West Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America join hands in calling on the government of Zimbabwe to drop the case and all charges against the Vice Chair of Dinde Residents Association, Never Tshuma, who was arrested for allegedly inciting the community against a proposed coal project in Dinde.

What has been shocking for the organisations involved in challenging the Richards Bay Combined Cycle Power Plant project is that locals say they have no knowledge of it. The lack of generalised and robust public consultation has resulted in communities being marginalised and excluded from the public participation process. It’s also against the law.

From 28-30 April, the Delta Built Environment Consultants (Delta) will host public hearings on the Musina Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) – a mega-industrial development proposed to be built in the Vhembe region of Limpopo.

A year since the first COVID-19 cases appeared in South Africa, the disease has killed more than 50,000 people. A new study now shows that a similar number of South Africans die each year due to diseases caused by air pollution linked with the burning of fossil fuels. Air pollution linked to burning of fossil fuels in South Africa

South Africa is taking emergency steps to plug the holes in a leaky electricity grid that are causing another season of scheduled power outages. One of these involves hiring three plug-and-play ocean-based mobile power stations – so-called ‘powerships’. But local energy experts warn that these are risky, expensive, and that the money would be far better spent building utility scale solar and wind plants.

The window of opportunity to keep the average global temperature from breaking through the ceiling of 2°C — or preferably 1.5°C — as set out in the UN’s Paris Agreement is closing fast.

Major climate impacts and exorbitant costs have sounded the death knell for one of the last new proposed coal-fired power stations in South Africa: Thabametsi in water-scarce Limpopo.

During September, South Africa’s youth infotainment show, Politically Aweh, in partnership with Action 24 – Active Citizens for Responsive Legislatures, launched a video series on the climate crisis in Mzansi. With the recent femicides that shook the nation to xenophobic attacks and an unemployment rate of 29%, it’s understandably challenging for young South Africans to even think about climate change. However, as Goldman Environmental prize winner, activist and HBF partner Makoma Lekalakala points out in the video “You cannot have jobs on a dead planet.”

On Friday 20th September, thousands of South Africans joined the global climate strike to register their objections to the continuing destruction of the planet. Among them was HBF partner the Support Centre for Land Change (SCLC) who are fighting against fracking threats.

Just a few months ago, two cyclones (Kenneth and Idai) destroyed the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in parts of southern Africa. The cyclones, along with widespread drought, forced desperate people to migrate. But links between migrancy and xenophobia, violence against women and the growing climate crisis across southern Africa and well beyond have been largely neglected.