-
2 months ago | 
engineeringnews.co.za | Saliem Fakir |Sheila Barradas |Terence Creamer |Darren Parker
It was a hot day in Dubai at COP28 last year. I was invited for coffee by a former German colleague from a past life. Somehow, we veered off track and into a discussion about Ukraine and Africa’s stance, particularly that of South Africa. My former colleague asked why South Africa and other African countries didn’t back Europe on Ukraine as she murmured impetuously: “Given what Europe has done for Africa.” Was the suggestion that we were ungrateful, and Europeans are doing us a big favour?
-
Jan 16, 2025 | 
engineeringnews.co.za | Saliem Fakir |Sheila Barradas |Irma Venter |Thabi Shomolekae
I live in a divided mental state over the yearly climate negotiations. The Conferences of the Parties (COP) remain important platforms for global collective action, but to say they are not fraying – both from within and due to bigger external events – would be an understatement. Their future appears rather bleak. Across the Atlantic, at the seat of global power, the anti-climate Rambo himself is soon to take office, and this only adds to the bleak outlook.
-
Oct 17, 2024 | 
engineeringnews.co.za | Saliem Fakir |Sheila Barradas |Irma Venter |Martin Creamer
In his book, How Neoliberalism Failed, and What a Better Society Could Look Like, which critiques neoliberal policies and explores alternatives for creating a more equitable and sustainable society, American economist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 Joseph Stiglitz remarks: “If more institutions are based on cooperation, we are more likely to wind up with more cooperative people.” This insight highlights a natural tension between single-cause issues, which require...
-
Sep 3, 2024 | 
news.cgtn.com | Saliem Fakir
Ecological "concerns" and the green BRICritics of the BRI often raise concerns regarding its environmental impact, suggesting that rapid infrastructure development may jeopardize Africa's delicate ecosystems. However, it's crucial to analyze who benefits from promoting these narratives. Many activists and organizations criticizing China's projects may have underlying geopolitical and economic interests, including protecting their national corporations' competitiveness in Africa.
-
Jul 18, 2024 | 
engineeringnews.co.za | Saliem Fakir |Sheila Barradas |Simone Liedtke
The concept of ‘justice’ in the Just Transition, associated with processes such as Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs), should not be viewed as a splendid island of bliss from which justice will effortlessly emerge, as this is not feasible in reality. There is also a common tendency among both proponents and opponents to view initiatives such as JETPs solely as projects.
-
May 16, 2024 | 
engineeringnews.co.za | Saliem Fakir |Sheila Barradas |Terence Creamer |Irma Venter
It takes a while but, slowly, one gets to see the possibility of things. Climate action has long been the mainstay of a specific tradition, which is based on the assumption that, if you throw enough Molotov cocktails at a thing that you have come to loathe, the world will just change. Even where change is advocated for in various types of activism and issues are taken up, it seems one will never be able to satisfy everyone. The human condition sets a very high bar for ‘cause purity’.
-
Apr 12, 2024 | 
greencentralbanking.com | Saliem Fakir |Jamie Woolley
Spring in the northern hemisphere heralds another round of meetings hosted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and climate finance will once again be on the agenda. Discussions on how to channel funds towards global south countries to deal with the climate crisis will inevitably be split by a false dichotomy: whether to finance development, or to invest in transitioning these countries to net zero.
-
Apr 11, 2024 | 
engineeringnews.co.za | Saliem Fakir |Sheila Barradas |Irma Venter
Africa|Nuclear|SECURITY|System|TechnologyAfrica|Nuclear|SECURITY|System|Technologyafrica|nuclear|security|system|technologyName & Surname: Your Email: Telephone: Your Enquiry: As a magazine-and-online subscriber to Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly, you are entitled to one free researchreport of your choice. You would have received a promotional code at the time of your subscription. Have this code ready and clickhere.
-
Mar 21, 2024 | 
engineeringnews.co.za | Saliem Fakir |Terence Creamer |Marleny Arnoldi |Irma Venter
Debt is never free lunch, even if it is for the cause of climate change. Debt’s relation to the creditor is defined by what the creditor demands as the rate of return in what the sociologist George Simmel would characterise as the “complete heartlessness of money”. There is a certain varnish put on forms of debt that are designed to achieve noble ends but, in reality, debt can either raise a country or reduce it to ashes. We sit today with the problem of the debt pump and debt distress.
-
Feb 15, 2024 | 
polity.org.za | Saliem Fakir
One must have felt a bit of a daze as a result of the cacophony of announcements at the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – or COP 28 – which was hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Dubai from November 28 to December 3. Every COP has these self-congratulating moments. The Lost and Damage Fund may have reached $700-milllion as starter cash but everyone knows this amount is meagre in relation to the scale of what is needed.
