Greedy cities consume Earth's resources By Haider Rizvi - United Nations
Disproportionate growth of the world's urban population could result in further loss of many forms of life on Earth, warn experts in the sciences of climate change and biodiversity.
Nearly 200 years ago, London was the only city in the world with more than one million people. Today, across the globe, there are more than 400 cities at least that size.
While these cities occupy only 2% of the planet's surface, according to the United Nations report World Population Prospects, their residents are responsible for at least 75% of the resources consumed by the global population, including a huge quantity of fossil fuels.
Climate change is one of the main forces responsible for the enormous loss of biodiversity on Earth, say scientists specialising in these fields. Long-term changes in average temperatures can dramatically alter the habitats that provide life support for plant and animal species.
With more than 3,2-billion people residing in the cities, for the first time the world's urban population now exceeds the number of those living in rural areas.
Since their appearance on Earth, human beings have never destroyed the web of life as much as during the past 50 years, according to the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report. It shows that before the industrial era, nearly 47% of the Earth's land surface was covered with forests; today the planet is left with only 10% of that.
"We are consuming more natural resources than can be regenerated," says Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. "We are living beyond the means and capacities of our planet."
http://www.mg.co.za/Clinton helps city go green By Benjamin Moshatama
Joburg is one of 40 cities around the world chosen by former US President Bill Clinton's foundation to go green. Joburg is the only South African city chosen under a plan that will give low-interest loans to install energy-saving gadgets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Clinton's plan, called the Climate Change Initiative, will be rolled out to three other African cities - Nigeria's Lagos, Egypt's Cairo and Ethiopia's Addis Ababa - and 36 others around the world. Clinton's plan aims to help Joburg's council buy products and technologies that help it use less energy.
Joburg will be among the first 15 cities, alongside New York, Rome, Tokyo and Bangkok, to implement the plan. The first buildings to go green are council-owned and include the Sandton, Roodepoort, Jabulani and Metropolitan civic centres, and the Putco building in Soweto. These buildings were chosen as they were the city's largest municipal office blocks. The buildings will be fitted with energy-saving devices like solar water heaters and solar-powered lighting.
Major global banks, including Citibank and Deutsche Bank, are providing loans for the Clinton Foundation's greening projects around the world. Foundation staff said they were in the process of appointing project managers in the various cities to co-ordinate the programme. Joburg Council has set up a dedicated climate-change programme within its Environmental Management Department; it will be expanded to co-ordinate the climate-change initiative.
The City of Johannesburg had already begun working with the Clinton Foundation to provide solar-powered streetlights in Zandspruit and solar water heaters in Cosmo City. The foundation has promised to provide leading experts who will lend technical assistance to cities. In addition, Internet-based communications systems will be set up to monitor the programme's effectiveness.
www.sundaytimes.co.zaAlternative building technologies to fast-track housing delivery
In an effort to speed up housing delivery, the Gauteng Department of Housing has undertaken to complement conventional housing construction with alternative building technologies.
"Already, there are two pilot projects under way in areas such as Nomzamo, Kaalfontein while a third one is being finalised," Housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane said on Friday during a presentation on her department's budget vote to the provincial legislature.
Alternatives building technologies are being considered as a means of lowering building costs. The National Department of Housing has established an innovation hub in Pretoria, where a number of houses have been built using various technologies.
The MEC also announced that about 3 000 social housing units will be delivered providing diversified rental housing options for different income groups targeting the inner-cities. She also added that the department would complete 13 hostels throughout the province.
"In this financial year the focus will be on completing 13 hostels throughout the province," Mokonyane said.
The department had also extended the Backyard Upgrade programme to Boipatong Township, for the construction of 750 units this year, and planning for other areas will begin as part of the 20 Prioritised Townships Programme roll-out plan.
This year the department would spend about R1,1-billion in identified projects by both provincial department and municipalities, with work already proceeding in 16 schools and four clinics identified by the municipalities.
The MEC added that the decision they took to implement a programme aimed at rehabilitating socio-economic infrastructure in townships is beginning to bear fruits.
"The Urban Renewal Programme has turned many of the targeted townships into busy construction sites," she said. However, she said this was not happening in an environment free of challenges.
"Many of these challenges are a result of corrupt business individuals and entities that are hell-bent to swindle the public programmes. "It is our intention to continue exposing and dealing with them without any feeling of mercy. We will continue to investigate, expose and arrest if necessary," she warned. BuaNews
www.sundaytimes.co.zaMayor rallies world cities to tackle climate change
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, today addressed Mayors from 34 of the world's largest cities about the dangers of catastrophic climate change and the need for immediate action. The Mayor followed Deputy Mayor of New York Dan Doctor off in opening the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York.
Speaking at the New York Summit, Mayor of London and Chair of the C40 Ken Livingstone said: "The fight to tackle climate change will be won or lost in cities. Whatever the discussions between our national governments, as cities we are not waiting for anyone else to move first. We are not going to simply talk about what we could do, while the window of opportunity for preventing catastrophic climate change disappears.
"Every city here today is a leader in at least one aspect of the fight to tackle climate change. Sometimes we can appear as competitors, but fundamentally this is not true. We are increasingly interconnected -no city can wall itself off from the consequences of climate change, and no city can prevent catastrophic climate change on its own. We could go it alone, but if we do so in isolation it will take much longer than if we co-operate. Each city's presence here today demonstrates a willingness to work together towards a common cause.
www.london.gov.ukUS, other G8 members split on climate change
Differences between the United States and other Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries were highlighted on the closing day of an environment ministers' conference in Potsdam near Berlin that ended on Saturday.
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the US, by contrast with other members of the G8, did not want to participate in paying financial compensation to developing countries for progress in combating climate change. This affected countries like Brazil, where there had been considerable success in reforesting the Amazon rainforest, Gabriel said. Germany currently holds the G8 presidency.
A second point of conflict was the US refusal to back the Emissions Trading Scheme operating in Europe that allows companies in energy-intensive industries to trade carbon-dioxide emissions. The German environment minister stressed, however, that US delegation head Stephen Johnson had laid out the effective US climate-protection policy.
The real conflict lay in the fact that Washington was pursuing a national climate-change policy and not participating in the carbon-dioxide goals laid out in the United Nations's 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Gabriel said. He noted that Johnson had not objected to his call to do more to limit greenhouse-gas emissions.
UN Climate Secretariat director Yvo de Boer confirmed that there were many points in common with the US, which accepted the scientific case for climate change and acknowledged the need for action.
Gabriel called for a close link between combating climate change and promoting economic development. Developing countries feared that new rules could hinder their economic growth, he said.
While no negotiations were conducted in Potsdam, the delegates prepared the ground for the G8 summit in June in the northern German town of Heiligendamm and for the UN's climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December.
The director of the UN Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, expressed satisfaction at the results of the meeting that included the environment ministers of five major developing countries. Steiner stressed that he did not expect a "major advance" at the Heiligendamm summit, as Europe, the US and the developing countries still had much work to do.
The G8 ministers discussed biodiversity and the extinction of species with environment ministers from Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa in the historic Schlosshotel Cecilienhof on Lake Jungfernsee. They agreed to commission a detailed study of the economic cost of biodiversity loss and a status list of the destruction of animal life, forests and plants. Sapa-dpa
www.mg.co.zaGreening the Cape
Energy in the Western Cape is set to become cleaner and greener with the introduction of ground-breaking legislation that will kick-start the renewable energy industry throughout the province.
The legislation includes a range of incentives, tariffs and tax breaks to stimulate the use of renewable energy across the residential, commercial and industrial sectors, the Cape Times reported on Tuesday.
It may even see the introduction of a mechanism that pays residents who produce their own renewable energy, to feed this energy back into the national grid.
Tasneem Essop, MEC for both Economic Development and for Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, announced at the climate change and renewable energy conference held in the city that she would begin the drafting of a renewable energy act for the Western Cape.
The new legislation will also improve energy security in a province hamstrung by blackouts, and will help reduce the country's carbon footprint.
It is also likely to include regulations that make it mandatory for new large housing projects, such as golf course developments, to have solar water heating and energy-efficient devices in all houses.
The director of the province's strategic environmental management, Mark Gordon, said on Monday that because energy was not a provincial competency, the provincial government had to partner with national government to draw up the new legislation, particularly with the Treasury, the Department of Minerals and Energy and the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).
South Africa, which burns coal for over 90 percent of its electricity, is the seventh highest per capita emitter of carbon in the world.
The legislation will be promulgated within two years. Sapa
www.sagoodnews.co.zaCape Town - Africa's first green city?
South Africa's drought-stricken coastal city of Cape Town is forging ahead with a plan to tackle the effects of climate change, which could provide a blueprint for other urban centres.
The Cape Town municipality, at the southern tip of the country, has been identified by the government's Department of Water Affairs and Forestry as the first major urban area where the demand for water is expected to exceed supply, and for the past few summers has already experienced rationing.
A South African Country Study on Climate Change, carried out in the late 1990's, projected that the Western Cape Province was at high risk of changing rainfall patterns, and was likely to become warmer and drier.
Cape Town, the provincial capital, aims to mitigate those effects through a Municipal Adaptation Plan (MAP) for climate change, a framework which has already been endorsed by local government.
The plan suggests steps that most residents could live with. Pierre Mukheibir and Gina Ziervogel, both researchers at the University of Cape Town who authored the MAP, have recommended the municipality should provide incentives in the form of rebates to taxpayers and businesses to install rainwater tanks, re-use their grey water and install low-flush toilets.
"We hope that the framework will serve as a blueprint for other municipalities," said Mukheibir.
Like California in the United States, the Cape Town municipality has been pioneering green policies in South Africa. Last year it launched a 10-point energy plan, which intends to ensure that 10 percent of the city's households install solar water heaters by 2020.
Power is a sore point in the city, where increased demand on the conventional grid has triggered a number of outages in the past three years, reportedly costing Cape Town businesses at least US $81 million in lost revenue.
The city has already started buying some of its electricity from a wind farm on the Cape West Coast, said Shirene Rosenberg, manager of resource conservation at the municipality. The city is also contemplating the introduction of cleaner fossil fuels such as natural gas.
Cape Town already conserves water by re-using nine percent of its treated effluent, according to the MAP researchers. "There should be incentives to encourage industries and other wet-processing systems to recycle their wastewater," noted the framework plan, which urges the installation of rainwater tanks in homes and commercial buildings for use in gardens, swimming pools, and for sewerage.
But the city's grand schemes have hit a speed bump. Municipalities do not have a constitutional mandate to put such plans into practice, making it difficult for them to establish legal grounds to source funding either from its taxpayers or the national government, explained Rosenberg. "This is bound to affect other municipalities who consider similar plans".
However, while the municipality seeks clarity, it will press ahead with MAP, she added. The city is already investigating the feasibility of offering water conservation-linked tax rebates.
South Africa's carbon footprint is the largest on the continent and the country features among the top 15 greenhouse gas emitters in the world.
South Africa has made a commitment to reduce the percentage of coal in its energy mix by 10 percent by 2012, but more than 91 percent of the country's electricity is currently generated by coal-fired plants, according to the University of Cape Town-based Energy Research Centre. The government has argued that most of its coal power stations still have a life span of 20 years or more. IRIN
www.sagoodnews.co.zaWest coast to power $40m wave energy project
Finavera Renewables, an Irish company dedicated to the development of wind and wave energy projects, has committed to build a 20 megawatt (MW) wave energy power plant off the coast of South Africa over the next five years.
The project fulfils the commitment Finavera Renewables made at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). Members of CGI are asked to make a commitment that will generate innovative solutions to limit some of the world's most pressing problems.
Chief executive Jason Bak said that the CGI is "a call to action resulting in the formulation of specific plans to address the world's foremost challenges. As a renewable energy developer, we have taken the initiative to effect change and move ourselves aggressively towards a sustainable ocean energy source."
"This type of project will help address the electricity needs of South Africa, parts of which are plagued by brownouts, and create a more sustainable energy model for developing countries," he added.
Finavera Renewables, through its wave energy division, plans to build a phased 20MW wave energy power plant in the South Africa for a total investment of more than US$40 million (R283 million) over five years. The project will generate more than 30 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, saving US$2 million per year in fuel and avoiding approximately 20,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
The preliminary site evaluation and selection process for its 20 megawatt (MW) wave energy project in April 2007.
"The site selection report confirms the strong wave resource off the (West) coast of South Africa and identifies two areas for potential development," said Bak in a statement.
A material percentage of the return from the project will be used to alleviate energy poverty and will provide economic benefits to local communities through the creation of jobs.
Southern Africa suffers from intermittent power disruptions and a serious power crisis is expected to affect much of the region by 2007 if investments in new energy projects are not made.
Regional demand for electricity has already begun to outstrip supply and the disparity is expected to increase. With South African energy demand projected to double over the next 10 years, the government has made a commitment to satisfy a portion of that demand with clean energy sources.
Finavera Renewables believe that this project will promote sustainable economic development and environmental protection in South Africa.
For more information, visit www.finavera.com
Millions poured into Greening of Soweto
The governments of Norway and Denmark have pledged to pour millions of rands into the Greening of Soweto legacy project. The plan is to plant more than 300,000 trees in the township over the next four years.
The City's plan to plant thousands of trees across Soweto has received a massive financial boost from the governments of Norway and Denmark and the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
The two governments and the union yesterday signed a contract with Johannesburg at the launch of the 2010 Mapetla Project in Soweto. The planting of trees in Mapetla forms part of the ambitious City project to green Soweto. Already dozens of trees have been planted as part of the ongoing Greening of Soweto Legacy Project. Signing the contract signified a commitment by the Scandinavian governments and the union to pour millions of rands into the programme.
Greening of Soweto, spearheaded by Johannesburg City Parks and the World Conservation Union, is aimed at beautifying the township ahead of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Executive Mayor Amos Masondo launched the project in September 2006.
Under it, more than 300,000 trees will be planted in Soweto's streets and parks over the next four years and in his 2006 budget, Masondo announced that the project would receive R7.6m.
"Planting of trees is a great effort. The project will benefit the people of Soweto," said Erik Solheim, the Norwegian minister of international development. Speaking at the event, Solheim said the world saw Soweto as a symbol of pride, a place where human beings stood up to the wrongs of apartheid.
Residents were also responsible for ensuring that the project was a success, he said, adding that hosting the 2010 World Cup showed that although the country was struggling, there was prosperity.
According to the IUCN, Greening of Soweto would not only beautify and soften the township's landscape, but would also create public spaces that would be a source of pride and joy for the township's residents.
"Soweto will no doubt attract thousands of tourists during the 2010 World Cup," said Valli Moosa, the IUCN president and the former minister of environmental affairs and tourism. He called on local and foreign donors to support the project. Soweto is one of South Africa's most important places of historical and social significance. Under the National Party government, the township was neglected and it acquired a reputation as dusty and dry.
Speaking on behalf of the City, the member of the mayoral committee for environment, Prema Naidoo, said, "Only by planting tree by tree, street by street, day by day, will we collectively bridge the green divide in Soweto."
Naidoo said planting trees in Soweto would help to bridge the "greening gap" between the township and Joburg's northern suburbs.
Dan Phadi, Soweto's ward 16 councilor, said residents were responsible for ensuring that the trees would grow to symbolise all that they had conquered in the quest to create a healthy nation. He pledged that Sowetans would "always nurture, respect and value these trees, as our own".
Following the formalities, Solheim, Moosa and the City's leadership planted a tree to symbolise their commitment to the project. They also unveiled a plaque to commemorate the Greening of Soweto Legacy Project.
www.joburg.org.zaDurban launches Africa's first landfill gas to electricity project
Durban has launched Africa's first landfill gas to electricity project at the Marianhill Landfill site. The project that converts landfill gas to electricity, will produce enough electricity for thousands of homes and inject tens of millions of rands into city coffers through the sale of electricity and certified emission reduction credits, more commonly known as carbon credits.
Millions of cubic metres of greenhouse gasses that would otherwise have escaped into the atmosphere each year, contributing to global warming, will now be converted into clean electricity, ensuring that the environment is a major benefactor as well.
The project is currently operating at the Mariannhill and La Mercy landfills and will be extended to the larger Bisasar Road landfill by the end of the year.
Speaking at the launch ceremony at the Mariannhill Landfill, eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba said the eThekwini was committed to being environmentally responsible in all its infrastructure development efforts. Mlaba predicted that the pioneering Durban initiative would encourage other cities in South Africa and the rest of Africa to follow suit.
"We are proud of what has been achieved thus far with the infrastructure development in Durban, but we believe that we can do much, much more." "Through collaboration with the World Bank and its Prototype Carbon Fund we can share our experience and hard-earned expertise with other municipalities in South Africa, and even with municipalities in other countries through the NEPAD initiative," Mlaba said.
City Manager Michael Sutcliffe said the project was important as part of eThekwini's overall strategic vision to be more sustainable and to tackle climate change. "Part of this is about taking advantage of aspects of the Kyoto Protocol which allow for carbon trading. Without this, projects like ours would not be financially viable.
The French Development Bank has provided a long-term loan of R58.74 million, with R17.7 million in donor funds coming from the Department of Trade and Industry. The World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund will initially be the main purchaser of carbon credits.
The World Bank's Noreen Beg congratulated eThekwini on taking the lead. "The World Bank is keen to promote successful solid waste management practices, and in this case the benefits are multiple - clean energy, and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions are also a result of the project.
Project manager Lindsay Strachan said that while initial profits from the project would be fairly modest, they would soon be a significant source of revenue for the city. He said the project's total income revenue for Mariannhill and La Mercy landfills would be some R33.9 million from the sale of carbon credits (R20.7 million) and the sale of electricity (R13.2 million).
When the Bisasar Road Landfill, comes on line at the end of 2007, the expected financials start to look far better for eThekwini with the profit to council being estimated at R 406.4 million."
Besides monetary gains to the city, Strachan stresses the environmental benefits of the project. "Africa stands to be severely affected by climate change. This project alone will reduce the burning of coal by some 80 000 tons per year (a large truck load per hour).
South Africa, albeit classified a developing country by Kyoto, is the fourteenth highest polluter of green house gas emissions in the world - certainly a developed polluter owed to her current reliance on coal fired energy. The Kyoto's clean development mechanisms (CDM) allows South Africans to take climate combating action profitably."
www.sagoodnews.co.zaCape Town is the cleanest!
Cape Town has been declared the cleanest city in South Africa, winning the Metro Category of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism's Annual Cleanest Town/Cleanest Metro 2006/2007 awards at a prestigious ceremony in Gauteng on Thursday. The Cleanest Town award went to the Swartland Local Municipality.
The announcement was made by the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Rejoice Mabudafhasi.
It is the second time Cape Town has won this bi-annual award, the first being in 2002. In 2004, the City was the second runner-up. The award is accompanied by a R1m grant to be applied for development-related programmes and projects to sustain cleanliness in communities.
The City was entered into the Provincial competition and was then advanced to the National Competition for adjudication. The independent group of panellists selected and appointed by DEAT for their knowledge and experience of environmental, social and institutional matters visits cities and towns for the competition.
Rustim Keraan, the City's Director of Solid Waste Management, said it was a great honour for Cape Town to win the competition.
"We are grateful to be recognised in this way. It is a huge accomplishment and the result of massive effort put in by Solid Waste Management and Water Services to maintain existing high levels of service," he said.
Keraan said Cape Town, along with every other city in South Africa, urgently needed legislation to enhance and govern "extended producer responsibility".
"Our primary aim is waste minimisation - where manufacturers like bottle suppliers and publishing companies take their waste back into their supply systems and recycle it. There is no legislation obliging them to do so at present," Keraan said.
He added that a Waste Management Bill pertaining to this issue had been finalised and put out for public comment, before being promulgated later this year. It was imperative that this Bill deal effectively with the issue of waste management, and achieve the vital objective of waste minimisation.
Speaking at the awards, Mabudafhasi said: "Municipalities also have a huge role to motivate, train and coach communities to focus on waste management projects for the benefit of local socio-economic development.
"Every participant in the Cleanest Town Competition is a winner, regardless of not taking an award back home. The bigger incentive should be contributing to sustainable development and creating a legacy one would be proud to leave behind as a gift to future generations".
The adjudication team in the competition performed a comprehensive physical assessment of local living conditions, after which a score was awarded in various categories.
These included general area cleanliness, availability and quality of public open spaces, graveyards, sports facilities and sanitation facilities.
Emphasis was placed on assessing the eradication of the bucket system. These factors carried a 60% weighting in the score, while the other 40% was made up of an assessment of the utilisation of budgets and the availability and execution of strategies and plans.
www.sagoodnews.co.zaUrban agriculture: the Cuban experience
Climate Radio presents the third in a series of four talks recorded earlier this year at the Soil Association annual conference looking at the impact of peak oil on agriculture.
André Viljoen discusses the potential for urban centres to transform themselves into food producing regions. This would help make urban spaces more self-sufficient lower their carbon footprint. In particular he draws lessons from the experience of Cuba - a country which underwent a transformation when it lost access to oil imports after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
To view the slideshow of Richard's presentation
click here
To read a transcript of the talk
click here
"The Power of Community - How Cuba survived peak oil" (DVD) at
www.communitysolution.org
"One Planet Agriculture - The case for action" (PDF)
Download PDF here
Soil Association One Planet Agriculture campaign:
For more information, click here
"Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes" by Andre Viljoen:
For more information, click hereMEETI invites applications for the following courses
The Minerals and Energy Education and Training Institute (MEETI) will shortly organise the following courses that may be of interest to SA-CAN members. We have good discounts for NGOs available (those are negotiated on individual basis)
Climate Change Policy and Strategy:
Managing Risks and Benefits in the Carbon Economy
24 - 27 July 2007 (4 days)
Do not miss this opportunity to gain an understanding of causes and economic effects of climate change and implications for Southern Africa.
To register contact: Pontsho Makgoba/Musa Mashinini
Phone: +27 11 709 4360 / 4718 info@meeti.org.za
Venue: MEETI offices in Randburg, Gauteng
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Presentation for Seminar
