Geneva, Switzerland, 28 November 2023&nbsp;– Transitioning to a more sustainable and carbon-neutral future, $13.5 trillion in investments will be needed by 2050, particularly in the production, energy and transport sectors, according to a new World Economic Forum report.



The&nbsp;Net-Zero Industry Tracker 2023, published in collaboration with Accenture, takes stock of progress towards net-zero emissions for eight industries – steel, cement, aluminum, ammonia, excluding other chemicals, oil and gas, aviation, shipping and trucking – which depend on fossil fuels for 90% of their energy demand and pose some of the most technological and capital-intensive decarbonization challenges.



The report, published the same week as the United Nations called at COP28 for “dramatic climate action” to close an “emissions canyon”, outlines pathways to accelerate the decarbonization of emission-intensive production, energy and transport industries.&nbsp;While the pathway to net zero in these sectors will differ based on unique sectoral and regional factors, investments in clean power, clean hydrogen and infrastructure for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) will be needed to accelerate industrial decarbonization across most sectors.



“Decarbonizing these industrial and transport sectors, which emit 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions today, is essential to achieving net zero, especially as demand for industrial products and transport services will continue to be strong,” said Roberto Bocca, Head of Centre for Energy and Materials, World Economic Forum. “Significant infrastructure investments are required, complemented by policies and stronger incentives so industries can switch to low-emission technologies while ensuring access to affordable and reliable resources critical for economic growth.”



According to the report, the $13.5 trillion in investments is derived from average clean power generation costs of solar, off-shore and on-shore wind, nuclear and geothermal, electrolyzer costs for clean hydrogen and carbon transport, as well as storage costs.



The Net-Zero Industry Tracker proposes a comprehensive framework of emissions drivers and enablers to measure progress and identify gaps, scorecards for each industry, and opportunities for cross-sector collaboration. Building on the 2022 edition, the updated report includes transportation sectors and applies the framework to identify strategies for net-zero industrial transformation.



The report’s findings underscore the urgency for creating a robust enabling environment, including low-emissions technologies, infrastructure, demand for green products, policies and investments. In addition to increasing capital expenditures to decarbonize existing industrial and transport asset bases, further investment is needed to build a clean-energy infrastructure.



Share of global GHG emissions for heavy industrial and transport sectors



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The majority of the technologies needed to deliver net-zero emissions are expected to reach commercial maturity after 2030, highlighting the need for collaborative approaches to research, develop and scale them. This includes substituting legacy technologies with low-emission alternatives, increasing efficiency of processes and machinery, electrification and driving circularity.



“It is imperative that action is taken soon to both decarbonize and improve energy efficiency; otherwise, unabated fossil-fuel demand in the key industry sectors, which have grown 8% on average the past three years, will increase very significantly by 2050,” said Bocca. “But industrial leaders can&nbsp; respond through new collaborative ways of working and innovating, for example within&nbsp;<a href="https://weforum.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6308fe51b420dc9ff3834abc8&amp;id=5e48b8e30b&amp;e=d66be97e93">industrial clusters</a>&nbsp;and by fostering best practices, sharing infrastructure in important areas like clean hydrogen and CCUS and building &nbsp;demand for lower-emissions products.”



According to the report, carbon pricing, tax subsidies, public procurement and development of strong business cases can support in mobilizing necessary investments. However, raising capital for high-risk projects with unproven technologies could be challenging in the current macroeconomic environment. Institutional investors and multilateral banks, therefore, can play an important role by providing access to low-cost capital linked to emissions targets; equally vital is adapting financial models to the needs of various industries and regions.



“Collaboration between the public and private sectors is critical to a successful energy transition, and technology can be a key enabler in both managing affordable and reliable access to clean energy and addressing the incremental cost of decarbonization,” said Muqsit Ashraf, who leads&nbsp;<a href="https://weforum.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6308fe51b420dc9ff3834abc8&amp;id=095135a5bd&amp;e=d66be97e93">Accenture Strategy</a>. “Widespread scaling and adoption of clean power, carbon capture and storage, and energy efficiency technologies across sectors are vital for progress. Additionally, business model innovations can also help stimulate demand and accelerate industrial decarbonization — achieving&nbsp;<a href="https://weforum.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6308fe51b420dc9ff3834abc8&amp;id=08ae963912&amp;e=d66be97e93">net-zero objectives</a>&nbsp;and a resilient energy transition.”



The report acknowledges that recent policy developments can push the industrial net-zero transformation in the right direction. While some advanced economies are enacting large-scale policy measures, emerging economies – which will account for a larger share of future demand for industrial products and transport services – will need help accessing low-emission technologies and solutions.



The report also calls for industrial sectors to focus on the following five areas, and details specific actions for each of the sectors as part of its individual scorecard:



<ul>
<li>Technology&nbsp;– Prioritize clean power technology across most sectors, commercially scale CCUS in cement, and improve technology to reduce costs for clean hydrogen development.</li>



<li>Infrastructure&nbsp;– Promote shared infrastructure, such as industrial hubs and clusters.</li>



<li>Demand&nbsp;– Create a standardized framework for low-emissions products, a simple emissions-intensity calculator and an auditable carbon-footprint assessment process, improving consumer transparency.</li>



<li>Policy&nbsp;– Align on emissions reduction requirements globally, with policies customized to suit individual country needs and enhance market transparency to increase emission intensity visibility.</li>



<li>Capital&nbsp;– Improve transparency for low-emissions and low-carbon alternatives, strengthen demand signals and reduce capital expenditures through shared infrastructure development.</li>
</ul>



“The Net-Zero Tracker 2023 explores in detail how low-carbon solutions and infrastructure will contribute to increasing the pace of decarbonization in hard-to-abate industries,” said Stephanie Jamison, Accenture’s global Resources industry practice lead and global sustainability services lead. “This depth is essential to help companies create sustainable value and impact as they strive to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.”

power-station-pollution-energy-electricity

Net-Zero Industry Tracker: $13.5 Trillion Investment Needed to Fast-Track Decarbonization of Key Hard-to-Abate Industry Sectors 

KEY POINTS



<ul><li>A document outlining the European Commission’s aims for the REPowerEU plan was published on Wednesday.</li><li>It highlighted the importance of energy savings, the diversification of energy imports and speeding up what it called “Europe’s clean energy transition.”</li><li>The EU’s desire to wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons means it will need to find oil and gas from other parts of the world to plug supply gaps.</li></ul>



The European Commission has fleshed out details of a plan to ramp up the EU’s renewable energy capacity and reduce its reliance on Russian fossil fuels, at the same time acknowledging that existing coal facilities may have to be used for “longer than initially expected.”



A document outlining the Commission’s aims for the REPowerEU plan was published on Wednesday, highlighting the importance of energy savings, the diversification of energy imports and speeding up what it called “Europe’s clean energy transition.”



In total, it envisages extra investment of 210 billion euros ($220.87 billion) between 2022 and 2027. When it comes to renewables’ share in the EU’s energy mix, the Commission has proposed that the current target of 40% by 2030 should be increased to 45%.



The Commission’s proposals came on the same day the governments of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium said they would aim for a combined target of at least 65 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030. By the middle of the century, they are aiming for 150 GW of capacity.



On the fossil fuel front, the situation is a challenging one. Russia was the biggest supplier of both petroleum oils and natural gas to the EU last year,&nbsp;<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_imports_of_energy_products_-_recent_developments#:~:text=Russia%20was%20the%20largest%20supplier,and%2C%20at%20some%20distance%20Algeria" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to Eurostat</a>.



The EU’s desire to wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons&nbsp;following the latter’s invasion of Ukraine&nbsp;means it will need to find oil and gas from other parts of the world to plug supply gaps.



The Commission said as much as 1.5 to 2 billion euros of investment would be needed to secure oil supply. To import enough liquefied natural gas and pipeline gas from other sources, an estimated 10 billion euros will be needed by 2030.



All the above comes at a time when the EU has said it wants to be carbon neutral by 2050. In the medium term, it wants net greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by at least 55% by 2030, which the EU calls its “Fit for 55” plan.



The Commission said REPowerEU could not work without what it called “a fast implementation of all Fit for 55 proposals and higher targets for renewables and energy efficiency.”



In this new reality, gas consumption in the EU would “reduce at a faster pace, limiting the role of gas as a transitional fuel,” the Commission said.



“However, shifting away from Russian fossil fuels will also require targeted investments for security of supply in gas infrastructure and very limited changes to oil infrastructure alongside large-scale investments in the electricity grid and an EU-wide hydrogen backbone,” it added.



“In parallel, some of the existing coal capacities might also be used longer than initially expected, with a role for nuclear power and domestic gas resources too,” the Commission said.



During a press conference on Wednesday the EU’s climate chief, Frans Timmermans, admitted that using less natural gas in a transitional phase would mean “you might use coal a bit longer — that has a negative impact on your emissions.”



“But if at the same time, as we propose, you rapidly speed up the introduction of renewables — solar, wind, biomethane — you then have the opposite movement,” he said.



Timmermans, who is the European Commission’s executive vice president for the European Green Deal, went on to stress the importance of finding a middle ground.



“If we can actually do what I say — reduce our energy consumption in combination with a speedier introduction of renewables — we will bring down our emissions even quicker than before,” he said.



“And then, of course we will have slightly higher emissions if people stick a bit longer to coal, but we need to strike the balance so that, on balance, we do not increase our emissions — we hopefully even decrease them more.”



Coal has a substantial effect on the environment, with Greenpeace describing it as “the dirtiest, most polluting way of producing energy.”



Elsewhere, the U.S. Energy Information Administration lists a range of emissions from coal combustion, including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulates and nitrogen oxides.



The European Commission announcement drew criticism from a number of environmental organizations.



“These plans are supposed to fast-track the clean energy transition — but the European Commission’s latest strategy gives with one hand and takes with the other,” Eilidh Robb, an anti-fossil fuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said.



“So-called REPowerEU contains useful and necessary strides towards renewable solutions but it simultaneously enables almost 50 fossil fuel infrastructure projects and expansions,” Robb said.

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Europe admits it’ll have to burn more coal as it tries to wean itself off Russian energy

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister of Nigeria, co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate



<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis</a>, a tragedy that is all at once fast and slow-moving, personal and global. The virus has killed more than 150,000 people. Livelihoods have been hit hard as communities are cut off and businesses are forced to close. Country leaders are understandably looking for ways to <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/03/coronavirus-economy-low-carbon-investments">stimulate their economies</a> immediately. 



During a crisis of this scale, it is understandable to the familiar.&nbsp;But, for their own sakes,&nbsp;governments&nbsp;must avoid&nbsp;defaulting&nbsp;to familiar investment habits – namely,&nbsp;ramping up production and use of high carbon emitting fuels.&nbsp;



The pandemic, together with the Saudi-Russia oil price tussle last month, have had a stark impact on oil markets. Oil futures recently went&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/upshot/negative-oil-price.html">negative for the first time in history</a>. This has highlighted how vulnerable countries with fossil fuel-dependent economies are to volatile fuel prices: in Sub-Saharan Africa, oil exporting nations could&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uneca.org/stories/eca-estimates-billions-worth-losses-africa-due-covid-19-impact">lose up to $65 billion</a>&nbsp;in revenues in 2020 as crude oil prices continue to tumble. Even before COVID-19, the global transition to a low-carbon economy was sparking a decline in oil prices. The pandemic has only exacerbated this trend, underscoring the need for diversifying these countries’ economies.



This is the time to invest in diversifying the economy, to build resilience to future shocks, not lock-in further dependence on fossil fuels. Conversely, investing in renewables and better grids in many countries will enable wider access to energy and greater self-reliance, enabling countries to take control of their economic prospects and insulate themselves from whimsical oil and gas markets.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Efforts to boost economic growth out of this health crisis in a way that locks in more&nbsp;fossil fuel production&nbsp;and use&nbsp;will&nbsp;only&nbsp;exacerbate&nbsp;other health crises, including&nbsp;the ongoing climate crisis&nbsp;and air pollution crisis. This&nbsp;will have&nbsp;dire implications&nbsp;for&nbsp;communities through more frequent and severe natural disasters, and more rapid spread of&nbsp;infectious diseases due to climate change.&nbsp;



Climate-induced changes in the movement patterns of humans, animals and pathogens will make viral outbreaks&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/09/04/how-climate-change-is-exacerbating-the-spread-of-disease/">more common</a>.&nbsp;This is&nbsp;just one big reason&nbsp;why&nbsp;we must&nbsp;respond to COVID-19 by building&nbsp;back better in terms of&nbsp;economies that are resilient to future shocks&nbsp;and accelerating the transition to inclusive, low-carbon growth.&nbsp;



Moving away from&nbsp;fossil fuels is challenging, particularly&nbsp;in developing and emerging economies&nbsp;with pressing development&nbsp;needs.&nbsp;Before COVID-19&nbsp;was a household name,&nbsp;Africa&nbsp;was already&nbsp;working to bring over&nbsp;<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2019/03/28/poverty-in-africa-is-now-falling-but-not-fast-enough/">400 million people</a>&nbsp;out of poverty and over&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1180443/icode/">200 million</a>&nbsp;out of hunger.&nbsp;



Some&nbsp;countries,&nbsp;including my own Nigeria,&nbsp;are reliant on&nbsp;oil and gas&nbsp;production to&nbsp;help finance these social gains.&nbsp;A careful and just management of the&nbsp;low-carbon&nbsp;economic transition is&nbsp;essential, to avoid&nbsp;stranded&nbsp;industries,&nbsp;communities and workers, exacerbating&nbsp;inequality.&nbsp;



A&nbsp;better&nbsp;future,&nbsp;where all jobs are green and decent, poverty is eradicated, workers are supported, and communities are thriving and resilient&nbsp;across all sectors of the economy, starts with&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/documents/publication/wcms_432859.pdf">just transition</a>&nbsp;today.&nbsp;That means&nbsp;working closely with affected workers and communities to ensure they benefit from the new economy that will emerge, while also directly investing in more diverse, clean energy alternatives and&nbsp;avoiding propping up failing oil and gas operations.



As the COVID-19 crisis has laid bare, robust social protection&nbsp;policies and programmes&nbsp;are&nbsp;essential to meet basic needs during periods of unemployment, re-training or education.&nbsp;A just transition means&nbsp;diversifying local economies, generating new industries, new services and&nbsp;building&nbsp;new&nbsp;essential&nbsp;skills&nbsp;across the workforce&nbsp;and&nbsp;adaptive capacity&nbsp;across&nbsp;communities&nbsp;to ensure they are resilient and benefit from a new climate economy. This&nbsp;will require new types of policies&nbsp;and accompanying investment.&nbsp;



Many&nbsp;wealthy regions are&nbsp;already&nbsp;supporting a just transition. Last year, Germany approved a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/bund-laender-einigung-zum-kohleausstieg-1712774">$45 billion</a>&nbsp;aid package for the nation’s coal regions&nbsp;and companies&nbsp;to&nbsp;support the transition to&nbsp;make the country coal-free by 2038.&nbsp;And the&nbsp;European Commission’s&nbsp;Green Deal, now a cornerstone of the EU’s COVID-19 response,&nbsp;includes a&nbsp;€100&nbsp;billion&nbsp;‘<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/news/2020/01/14-01-2020-financing-the-green-transition-the-european-green-deal-investment-plan-and-just-transition-mechanism">Just Transition Mechanism</a>’&nbsp;to help retrain workers who lose jobs in shuttered coal mines or steel factories.&nbsp;Other&nbsp;countries&nbsp;are&nbsp;approving&nbsp;similar funding packages, but none of&nbsp;them&nbsp;include&nbsp;aid&nbsp;for&nbsp;the transition in&nbsp;developing nations.&nbsp;



Now more&nbsp;than ever,&nbsp;rich countries&nbsp;must&nbsp;support the&nbsp;developing world in the pursuit of a&nbsp;healthy and prosperous future for all.&nbsp;This is&nbsp;the time when we can and must design&nbsp;a new social contract, and&nbsp;demonstrate solidarity&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;communities that are the most vulnerable.&nbsp;We must apply every tool at our disposal to&nbsp;advance&nbsp;responses to the pandemic&nbsp;that&nbsp;secure incomes and jobs,&nbsp;address&nbsp;the&nbsp;immediate health needs,&nbsp;and promote&nbsp;a just transition forward&nbsp;toward an inclusive, low-carbon and resilient economy.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the climate crossroads the world was already facing.&nbsp;This terrible moment in history demands us to&nbsp;build back better.&nbsp;The world’s larger economies have a responsibility to lead the&nbsp;charge.&nbsp;Fortunately,&nbsp;low-carbon&nbsp;solutions are cheaper and more available than ever before.&nbsp;The&nbsp;New Climate Economy&nbsp;finds that bold climate action could deliver&nbsp;<a href="http://newclimateeconomy.report/2018">$26 trillion in economic benefits</a>&nbsp;between now and 2030, and these benefits would start immediately. It could also generate over 65 million jobs in 2030.&nbsp;



We are living in uncertain and frightening times.&nbsp;But&nbsp;we must&nbsp;be brave. We must&nbsp;aim to&nbsp;do more than survive, we must thrive.&nbsp;We&nbsp;must&nbsp;improve lives&nbsp;by&nbsp;shifting away from&nbsp;dirty,&nbsp;carbon-intensive&nbsp;industries.&nbsp;Low-income regions cannot do this alone.&nbsp;The world’s&nbsp;developed economies must invest&nbsp;in a better way, a more just way.&nbsp;This&nbsp;is&nbsp;the challenge of our lifetimes.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Okonjo-Iweala

Op-Ed – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: A global response to COVID-19 that doesn’t fully support developing countries is no response at all

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 Power station in South Africa.
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By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mark-new-189846">Mark New</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a>

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<a href="https://theconversation.com/nz/topics/climate-explained-74664">Climate Explained</a> is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. 

If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz

<blockquote>
How much climate change is natural? How much is man made?
</blockquote>

As someone who has been working on climate change detection and its causes for over 20 years I was both surprised and not surprised that I was asked to write on this topic by The Conversation. For <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/24/scientific-consensus-on-humans-causing-global-warming-passes-99">nearly all</a> climate scientists, the case is proven that humans are the overwhelming cause of the long-term changes in the climate that we are observing. And that this case should be closed.

Despite this, climate denialists continue to receive <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg">prominence</a> in some media which can lead people into thinking that man-made climate change is still in question. So it’s worth going back over the science to remind ourselves just how much has already been established.

Successive reports by the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> – mandated by the United Nations to assess scientific evidence on climate change – have evaluated the causes of climate change. The most recent <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees</a> confirms that the observed changes in global and regional climate over the last 50 or so years are almost entirely due to human influence on the climate system and not due to natural causes.

<h2>What is climate change?</h2>

First we should perhaps ask what we mean by climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/glossary">defines climate change as</a>:

<blockquote>
a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.
</blockquote>

The causes of climate change can be any combination of:

<ul>
<li>Internal variability in the climate system, <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/23552/chapter/5">when various</a> components of the climate system – like the atmosphere and ocean – vary on their own to cause fluctuations in climatic conditions, such as temperature or rainfall. These internally-driven changes generally happen over decades or longer; shorter variations such as those related to El Niño fall in the bracket of climate variability, not climate change.</li>
<li>Natural external causes such as increases or decreases in volcanic activity or solar radiation. For example, every 11 years or so, the Sun’s magnetic field <a href="https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-cycles/en/">completely flips</a> and this can cause small fluctuations in global temperature, up to about 0.2 degrees. On longer time scales – tens to hundreds of millions of years – geological processes can drive changes in the climate, due to shifting continents and mountain building. </li>
<li>Human influence through greenhouse gases (gases that trap heat in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide and methane), other particles released into the air (which absorb or reflect sunlight such as soot and aerosols) and land-use change (which affects how much sunlight is absorbed on land surfaces and also how much carbon dioxide and methane is absorbed and released by vegetation and soils).</li>
</ul>

<h2>What changes have been detected?</h2>

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">recent report</a> showed that, on average, the global surface air temperature has risen by 1°C since the beginning of significant industrialisation (which roughly started in the 1850s). And it is increasing at ever faster rates, currently 0.2°C per decade, because the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have themselves been increasing ever faster. 

The oceans are warming as well. In fact, <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/">about</a> 90% of the extra heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases is being absorbed by the oceans.

A warmer atmosphere and oceans are causing dramatic changes, including <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/arctic-sea-ice-greenland-melt">steep decreases in Arctic summer sea ice</a> which is profoundly impacting arctic marine ecosystems, increasing sea level rise which is inundating low lying coastal areas such as Pacific island atolls, and an <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180321130859.htm">increasing frequency of many climate extremes</a> such as drought and heavy rain, as well as disasters where climate is an important driver, such as wildfire, flooding and landslides.

Multiple <a href="https://science2017.globalchange.gov/chapter/3">lines of evidence</a>, using different methods, show that <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/">human influence is the only plausible explanation</a> for the patterns and magnitude of changes that have been detected. 

This human influence is largely due to our activities that release greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, as well sunlight absorbing soot. The <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions">main sources of these warming gases and particles</a> are fossil fuel burning, cement production, land cover change (especially deforestation) and agriculture.

<h2>Weather attribution</h2>

Most of us will struggle to pick up slow changes in the climate. We feel climate change largely through how it affects weather from day-to-day, season-to-season and year-to-year.

The weather we experience arises from dynamic processes in the atmosphere, and interactions between the atmosphere, the oceans and the land surface. Human influence on the broader climate system acts on these processes so that the weather today is different in many ways from how it would have been. 

One way we can more clearly see climate change is by looking at severe weather events. A branch of climate science, called extreme event or weather attribution, looks at memorable weather events and estimates the extent of human influence on the severity of these events. It <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org">uses weather models</a> run with and without measured greenhouse gases to estimate how individual weather events would have been different in a world without climate change.

<a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-how-climate-change-affects-extreme-weather-around-the-world">As of early 2019</a>, nearly 70% of weather events that have been assessed in this way were shown to have had their likelihood and/or magnitude increased by human influence on climate. In a world without global warming, these events would have been less severe. Some 10% of the studies showed a reduction in likelihood, while for the remaining 20% global warming has not had a discernible effect. For example, <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aae9f9">one study showed</a> that human influence on climate had increased the likelihood of the 2015-2018 drought that afflicted Cape Town in South Africa by a factor of three.

<h2>Adapting to a changing climate</h2>

Weather extremes underlie many of the hazards that damage society and the natural environment we depend upon. As global warming has progressed, so have the frequency and intensity of these hazards, and the damage they cause.

Minimising the impacts of these hazards, and having mechanisms in place to recover quickly from the impacts, is the aim of climate adaptation, as <a href="https://gca.org/global-commission-on-adaptation/home">recently reported by the Global Commission on Adaptation</a>.

As the Commission explains, investing in adaptation makes sense from economic, social and ethical perspectives. And as we know that climate change is caused by humans, society cannot use “lack of evidence” on its cause as an excuse for inaction any more.

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This article is part of <a href="https://www.cjr.org/covering_climate_now/covering-climate-partnerships.php/">The Covering Climate Now</a> series
 This is a concerted effort among news organisations to put the climate crisis at the forefront of our coverage. This article is published under a Creative Commons license and can be reproduced for free – just hit the “Republish this article” button on the page to copy the full HTML coding. The Conversation also runs Imagine, a newsletter in which academics explore how the world can rise to the challenge of climate change. <a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&amp;utm_medium=linkback&amp;utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&amp;utm_content=CoveringClimateNow">Sign up here</a>.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123604/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important">

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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mark-new-189846">Mark New</a>, Director, African Climate and Development Initiative, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-how-much-of-climate-change-is-natural-how-much-is-man-made-123604">original article</a>.

Climate explained: how much of climate change is natural? How much is man-made?

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/meron-teferi-taye-804226">Meron Teferi Taye</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/addis-ababa-university-2161">Addis Ababa University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ellen-dyer-804257">Ellen Dyer</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-oxford-1260">University of Oxford</a>

In July Ethiopians <a href="http://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/ethiopia-plants-over-350-million-trees-day-setting-new-world-record">planted</a> 350 million trees in a single day. This was part of the country’s national <a href="https://pmo.gov.et/greenlegacy/">green legacy initiative</a> to counter environmental degradation and climate change. The initiative ultimately aims to grow 4 billion trees across the country.

Ethiopia has long struggled with land degradation problems in part caused by <a href="https://www.thegef.org/topics/land-degradation">unsustainable agricultural practices</a> – like <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-19168-3_14">vegetation clearance and overgrazing</a>, among others. These pressures are increasing as the population grows.

Where water becomes scarcer due to climate change, <a href="https://www.longdom.org/open-access/climate-change-and-its-impact-on-land-degradation-imperative-need-to-focus-2332-2594.1000108.pdf">land degradation could worsen</a>. But what does the science tell us about the effects of climate change on water resources, and so on people and the economy, in Ethiopia?

Since 2015, the <a href="https://reachwater.org.uk/">REACH programme</a> – a global research programme to improve water security for the poor and in which we are involved – has attempted to answer this question. We focused on Ethiopia’s Awash River basin, one of the country’s most economically and socially important basins.

The basin represents about <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265483628_The_Water_of_the_Awash_River_Basin_a_Future_Challenge_to_Ethiopia">10% of the country’s land area</a>, and 17% of its total population. It is home to the capital city, Addis Ababa, and also plays a critical role for Ethiopia’s economy.

In Ethiopia, most studies on the effects of climate change on water resources focus on the Nile basin. Future projections also often lack consistency because of the differences in the models that are used. <a href="https://reachwater.org.uk/resource/climate-change-impact-on-water-resources-in-the-awash-basin-ethiopia/">Our research</a> aimed to develop better estimates of the effects of climate change on water availability in the Awash basin. We did this by using climate models that best represented the region’s characteristics. 

We found that, in the future, the basin will be hotter, drier and more water stressed. This could have severe consequences on human and economic development, highlighting the need for climate resilient policies to minimise impacts.

<h2>Water is crucial for people and the economy</h2>

In Ethiopia, rainfall and water availability are highly variable. The lack of water often impacts communities, industry and agriculture. Almost all food crops, and most industrial crops in Ethiopia, are <a href="http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries_regions/eth/ETH-CP_eng.pdf">produced by rain-fed agriculture</a>. Industrial crops alone contribute to <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/dam/ethiopia/docs/UNDP%20Ethiopia%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Agriculture%20Growth%20and%20Transformation%20-%20August%202014.pdf">85% of export earnings</a>.

In addition water is vital to electricity generation. Hydropower accounts for about <a href="https://www.hydropower.org/country-profiles/ethiopia">90% of Ethiopia’s electricity</a>. 

This high reliance on water means that Ethiopia is very vulnerable to water-related climate shocks – like water scarcity, drought and floods. <a href="https://reachwater.org.uk/resource/water-resources-extreme-events-awash-basin-economic-effects-policy-implications/">A modest 5% decrease in rainfall</a> could cause a 10% decrease in agricultural productivity and reduce the GDP derived from the basin by 5%.

The basin is already vulnerable. It often experiences floods and droughts. Besides, access to water is very geographically uneven, with rainfall and surface water being scarce downstream and relatively abundant in the highlands. To what extent would adding climate change to the mix worsen the situation?

<h2>Hotter and drier future</h2>

Using models that best characterise the basin, we projected future changes in temperature and precipitation. We then compared those to the historical average. Our climate projections suggest water stress will generally intensify in the future – although there are some spatial differences. Water availability will continue to decrease progressively until at least the end of the century.

These findings are particularly critical for the key irrigation period of April to June. During these months we find decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature will lead to lower water availability. 

These months are the peak irrigation period for both small-scale farmers and large-scale irrigators. Additionally, water allocation between hydropower and irrigators could be a source of conflict in the face of decreased water availability.

Finally, this will make water access more challenging for human needs such as drinking, sanitation and hygiene. This will be particularly true for poor and vulnerable communities, and those downstream.

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<h2>Climate resilient policies</h2>

Developing climate resilient policies for allocating water, and planning for a reduced water availability, is ever more pressing. But incorporating climate information within management decisions is a complex task. This requires access to scientific information and a good understanding of the current and future hydroclimatic situation.

To support better water management and allocation policies, our research points to the need to:

<ul>
<li>Improve the accessibility of climate information and develop the capacity of staff in government and related institutions to be able to understand and use it for water management; </li>
<li>Sustainably develop additional water sources, such as groundwater, which could act as a buffer and supplement surface water supply;</li>
<li>Consider the needs of the poorest in the basin who are the most vulnerable to climate change.</li>
</ul>

Of course, decisions about how much water to allocate and to whom in a drier future will be politically challenging. They require effective management strategies, political will and investments and better stakeholder dialogue forums. Scientists will also need to work more closely with policy makers.

Ethiopia’s green legacy is a promising contribution towards tackling global climate change: trees can play an important role in removing atmospheric carbon dioxide. But can trees contribute to local climate adaptation and mitigate land degradation? 

This is a complex question and our view is that, for a country that will likely be hotter, drier, and more water stressed, climate resilient policies need to be grounded in robust science.

Alice Chautard, REACH Communications and Knowledge Exchange Manager, University of Oxford, contributed to the writing of this article.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121844/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/meron-teferi-taye-804226">Meron Teferi Taye</a>, Country Programme Manager, REACH: Improving Water Security for the Poor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/addis-ababa-university-2161">Addis Ababa University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ellen-dyer-804257">Ellen Dyer</a>, Postdoctoral researcher in African Climate Science, School of Geography and the Environment, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-oxford-1260">University of Oxford</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopias-future-is-tied-to-water-a-vital-yet-threatened-resource-in-a-changing-climate-121844">original article</a>.

This East African country’s future is tied to water – a vital yet threatened resource in a changing climate

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Last week saw the Kigali Global Dialogue where thought leaders came together to discuss global contemporary issues of development and growth. The talks centered around human policy, technological transformation of society, public health and climate change and sustainability. One of the key speakers on these topics, Joyce Msuya joins CNBC Africa for more.

Joyce Msuya on achieving sustainable development in East Africa

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</div>
The World Bank and the African Development Bank have pledged to give more than $47billion by 2025 to help African countries tackle the effect of climate change. Desmond Majekodunmi, founder of Lufasi Urban Forest Park joins CNBC Africa to discuss climate change in Africa.

World Bank & AfDB commit over $47bn for African climate finance

It’s difficult as an individual, a group or a nation to know how to act when faced with climate change problems. As with other global environmental problems, these challenges are economically, environmentally and socially complex. They come with ethical issues and generate disagreement between different groups of people.
This complexity is particularly apparent in cities where many different groups of people with diverse cultures and perspectives live. And cities, of course, are hot spots for the problems related to climate change.
But the good news is that cities also have the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02409-z">potential to produce solutions to climate change problems</a> because they contain dense networks, technologies and groups of people with diverse perspectives. This was a key message which emerged from the first ever <a href="https://citiesipcc.org">Cities Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> meeting, held in Canada recently.
Science alone can’t provide all the answers or solutions for cities grappling with changing climates and extreme weather. Cities’ social, cultural, economic and historical differences should be considered when planning any climate-related response. And it’s residents, citizens and local authorities who have that context.
That’s where <a href="http://www.csag.uct.ac.za/2016/11/11/whats-the-difference-between-knowledge-co-production-and-co-exploration/">knowledge co-production</a> can be useful. It’s an evolving research process that recognises the importance of multiple knowledge types and perspectives to build a holistic understanding of complex problems.
The <a href="http://www.fractal.org.za/">Future Resilience of African CiTies and Lands</a> project uses knowledge co-production by gathering together a number of different people from different areas of expertise and ordinary citizens. This was done across nine African cities: Durban, Blantyre, Cape Town, Gaborone, Harare, Johannesburg, Maputo, Lusaka and Windhoek. These groups then consider people’s priorities, cities’ histories and contexts, and what role climate science factors into decisions.
These questions guide our research objectives as people from government, NGOs, civil society groups and academia gather face-to-face to discuss and explore contextual issues and potential solutions.
<h2>Putting people at the centre</h2>
This process has forced researchers to really take local knowledge into account for each city. We’ve steered clear of a “cut and paste” approach to defining climate risks and responses as much as possible, since each city’s needs and threats are different.
Throughout history, science has informed many development decisions. A dynamic has been set up between those who use science and those who produce it that centres the producers. It’s difficult to shift from this dynamic to research processes that support inclusive conversations about potential solutions, with a diverse set of values and perspectives.
Such conversations place people at the centre of the research process instead of scientific content. These processes also clearly acknowledge the assumptions and limitations of science, and value different forms of knowledge equally.
Research institutions and donor funded programmes generally place scientific knowledge on a pedestal, especially if it is produced in the northern hemisphere. Many of these institutions and programmes also measure success using rigid frameworks that focus more on targets and outputs and less on how people are learning through such dialogues.
What’s been key in our work is that scientific knowledge is not considered more important than the knowledge held by decision makers and civilians. These people understand the effects of a changing climate in context, and can identify the potential responses that fit this context. For example, civilians in Harare have a good idea of how strong political influences intersect with the consequences of severe or frequent drought. People from Botswana can offer knowledge on novel communication approaches to support responses, such as through local community fora called “freedom squares”.
<h2>Solutions are emerging</h2>
The Future Resilience of African CiTies and Lands project is bearing fruit. For instance, scientists and decision makers <a href="http://www.fractal.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/City-Digest-Lusaka-Issue-1-digital.pdf">in Lusaka</a> are in the process of finalising four policy briefs on water issues in the city. They’ve reflected on how climate will affect these issues, and come up <a href="http://www.fractal.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/City-Digest-Lusaka-Issue-1-digital.pdf">with potential solutions</a>. These groups sat for several days in the same room to flesh out contextual issues and potential solutions together.
This is different from the usual approach of climate scientists producing information and then passing it down the chain to users of this information.
In Blantyre, Gaborone, Harare, Lusaka, Maputo and Windhoek, city governments are working with scientists, engineers and civilians to co-produce narratives about the future of their cities in the face of climate change. The Namibian capital will be using their narratives, along with other important climate information, in the development of the City of Windhoek Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98487/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />Processes like these help to build relationships between governments, researchers and civilian groups, as well as between different departments within government. These networks will support cities’ climate change conversations long after the Future Resilience of African CiTies and Lands project ends.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alice-mcclure-331153">Alice McClure</a>, PhD candidate at the The Climate System Analysis Group, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gina-ziervogel-196562">Gina Ziervogel</a>, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science and African Climate and Development Initiative Research Chair, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cape-town-691">University of Cape Town</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-african-cities-residents-are-creating-climate-change-solutions-98487">original article</a>.

Here’s how the residents of African cities are creating solutions for climate change

BERLIN, Oct 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; As a child during Ethiopia’s deadly famine of 1984, Asfawossen Kassaye remembers watching people from the countryside flock to his town, desperately looking for food after a drought devastated their fields.
He knows first-hand how much damage climate change has done to his region of East Africa, where scientists say it is making droughts worse, longer and more frequent, putting millions at risk of hunger.
Watch: <a href="http://cnbc.africa/videos/2017/09/14/is-climate-change-the-culprit-behind-natural-disasters/">Is climate change the culprit behind natural disasters?</a>
“Climate change is something that is part of the life of the people there” said Kassaye, a geology professor at Addis Ababa University.
The growing risks are driving a small but increasingly vocal group of researchers to explore using technology to reduce the threats, in essence by re-engineering the climate.
Such “geoengineering” proposals include large-scale, controversial projects that aim to dim sunlight or capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The proposals &#8211; some of which sound like science fiction &#8211; are for the most part still in early stages of testing. But campaigners say poor countries might, once again, suffer the most devastating consequences if some of the technologies are used.
Poor countries have disproportionately born the brunt of climate change even as they had little to do with causing it. In 2015, the United States alone emitted more planet-warming carbon dioxide than the African continent’s 54 countries.
The build-up of climate-changing gases in the atmosphere has driven unusual and extreme weather linked to climate change across the globe, bringing record floods and droughts and more severe storms.
But poor countries have suffered the most serious economic damage and loss of lives, in part because they have limited resources to prepare for and cope with the changes, experts say.
“This is something that we haven’t caused, that we are paying a bigger price for,” Kassaye, of Ethiopia, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at a climate conference in Berlin.
The question scientists are now trying to answer is: Could geoengineering methods leave people in poor, climate-vulnerable countries better off than unabated climate change?
“What the African farmer wants it to know is if there will be rain next year, if that rain is going to come at a predictable time, and if it’s going to be enough for the crops,” Kassaye said.
HACKING THE CLIMATE
Worldwide, rising temperatures are now on track to exceed goals set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Those excess emissions are blamed for stoking heatwaves, downpours, more powerful storms and a rise in sea levels.
As a result, research into geoengineering is ramping up and scientists say large-scale projects to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere will be needed by the 2030s to hold the line against climate change.
If geoengineering solutions fulfill their promises, they could reduce global warming, limit sea-level rise, and make extreme weather events such as hurricanes and droughts less frequent.
But there is little research about the potential effects of some of the technologies on poor countries.
Some studies have suggested, for instance, that spraying sun-dimming chemicals into the upper atmosphere could affect global weather patterns and shift monsoons that are vital for millions across Asia and Africa.
“Geoengineering is a humanitarian concern,” Pablo Suarez, a researcher for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Berlin. “It is not only about degrees Celsius and global temperature. It is about people.”
Other ideas for easing climate impacts include planting carbon-absorbing forests across large areas of the world, then harvesting the wood for energy, with the emissions produced pumped into storage underground.
Such a process could suck carbon out of the atmosphere and is likely to feature in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report next year.
But scientists say planting forests on the scale needed to limit global warming could take up to a third of the land that can be used to grow crops, threatening food security and land rights, particularly of poor people.
Some climate change-related problems also are left unresolved by climate engineering, experts say.
Dimming sunshine to cool the planet, for example, would not reduce the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, something that is making oceans more acidic and threatening sea life that millions rely on for food.
LEAP IN THE DARK
While many scientists have studied the potential for engineering solutions at a global level, models used to predict climate change and weather patterns in the future are not precise enough yet to predict regional changes accurately, experts say.
And different regions have different priorities when it comes to fighting climate change. Scientists in east Africa, which often struggles with long droughts, for instance, are worried about the impact that efforts to reflect more sunlight away from the planet could have on rainfall.
In the Caribbean, just battered by a series of deadly hurricanes, the focus is on the potential for geoengineering making extreme weather events less &#8211; or more &#8211; frequent.
South Asian researchers, whose home countries saw over a thousand die this year after the worst flooding in a decade, are interested in the impact of the new technologies on monsoons.
But those involved in studying geoengineering have predominantly been from rich countries in Europe and North America, rather than from poorer countries.
Last week, a new research fund aimed at scientists from developing countries was launched to help them study the impact of “solar radiation management” &#8211; or reflecting away more sunlight &#8211; on their regions.
“Developing countries are typically on the frontline of climate change. They are more vulnerable to environmental change &#8211; change caused by global warming or by geoengineering,” said Andy Parker, a project manager at the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, which launched the fund.
Voices from poor countries have to be more central to discussions about geoengineering, he added.
“Nobody likes to be a rat in someone else’s laboratory,” Suarez, of the Red Cross’s Climate Centre, said at last week’s Climate Engineering Conference 2017 in Berlin.
“There is a symbolic difference between (change) happening as a by-product of people using their cars, heating their homes or chopping their trees versus someone intentionally changing the climate,” he said.
A WELCOME DISTRACTION?
One thing many campaigners and scientists agree on is that they don’t know enough about the potential impacts of geoengineering.
But some fear that pinning hopes on technology to fix the climate is a distraction from making needed emissions cuts and could divert funding from pressing efforts to adapt to the changes underway.
“To prevent more droughts, you need to think about alternatives, about solving the causes of the problem with agriculture, restoration of forests,” said Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America director at environmental group ETC, which opposes the use of geoengineering technology.
&#8220;That doesn&#8217;t only provide environmental benefits, it also provides food and employment for many people,&#8221; he said. (Reporting by Anna Pujol-Mazzini @annapmzn, Editing by Laurie Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org)

Why Africans are wary of re-engineering the climate

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/robert-ferris/" rel="author">Robert Ferris</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/RobertoFerris">@RobertoFerris</a>
<ul>
<li>Elon Musk said Thursday he will leave his positions on three presidential councils after Trump said the U.S. will leave the Paris Agreement.</li>
<li>Leaving the agreement is &#8220;not good for America or for the world,&#8221; the Tesla and Space X CEO said in a tweet</li>
</ul>
<div class="group">
&nbsp;
<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/" target="_self">Elon Musk</a> said Thursday he will leave his positions on three presidential councils.
Musk&#8217;s decision follows an announcement from <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_self">President Donald Trump</a> that <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/01/trump-announces-paris-climate-agreement-decision.html" target="_self">the U.S. will back out of the Paris climate accord.</a>
Leaving the agreement is &#8220;not good for America or for the world,&#8221; the <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA" target="_self" data-gdsid="74213" data-inline-quote-symbol="TSLA">Tesla</a> and Space X CEO said in a tweet.
&nbsp;
</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/870369915894546432">June 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Musk had served on councils advising Trump on business, manufacturing jobs and infrastructure. He had defended his decision to serve the president, despite criticism. However, on Wednesday Musk warned <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/elon-musk-threatens-to-leave-white-house-councils-if-trump-drops-paris-accord.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/31/elon-musk-threatens-to-leave-white-house-councils-if-trump-drops-paris-accord.html" target="_self">he might quit</a> if Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement.
The landmark climate deal calls for the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by between 26 and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, among other things.
Trump has said the Paris accord was negotiated to have terms that are unrealistic and unfair to the U.S.
The president is looking to withdraw from the accord and immediately restart talks to set targets that would be more fair. However, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/01/france-italy-germany-firmly-believe-paris-climate-deal-cant-be-renegotiated-reuters-citing-statement.html" target="_self">French, German and Italian officials said they do not believe the agreement can be renegotiated</a>.
The accord was the result of more than 20 years of negotiations, and the only countries in 
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that have not signed on to the deal are Syria and Nicaragua.
Proponents of the deal expect it will help bolster businesses like those that Musk runs. Both electric cars and solar energy can be used to help reach the targets proposed in the deal.
Musk isn&#8217;t the only CEO who has pushed Trump to uphold the deal. Others include <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a> and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MSFT" target="_self" data-gdsid="25619" data-inline-quote-symbol="MSFT">Microsoft</a>.
Silicon Valley investor Doug Derwin, who <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/17/this-is-man-spending-millions-to-tell-elon-musk-to-dump-trump.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/17/this-is-man-spending-millions-to-tell-elon-musk-to-dump-trump.html" target="_self">had pledged</a> to spend up to $2 million of his own money on a campaign to pressure Musk to quit the councils, welcomed the news.
&#8220;Thanks, Elon, for doing the right thing,&#8221; said Derwin, in a statement sent to CNBC on Thursday. &#8220;Welcome to the resistance.&#8221;
<a href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000623723">Watch: Macron says Paris climate deal &#8216;irreversible&#8217;</a>

Elon Musk is leaving presidential councils over withdrawal from Paris accord

Tanisha Heiberg | JOHANNESBURG
South African petrochemicals group Sasol will apply to postpone a 2020 deadline for meeting stricter air pollution laws, the company said on Wednesday.
South Africa, the continent&#8217;s worst polluter and most advanced economy, emits millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, much of it from coal-fired power plants that still provide most of its energy.
Sasol said it would apply for a postponement for some of its plants to 2025 when it would be able to meet most of the new plant standards.
<blockquote>&#8220;The reason for postponements is in order to help us or give us time or provide the opportunity to implement the projects over a period of time,&#8221; said Sasol executive vice president for operations, Bernard Klingenberg.</blockquote>
The company said challenges in reducing sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide emissions could further delay compliance past 2025 and may require further reprieves.
<blockquote>&#8220;There will be postponement applications again, particularly in SO2 (sulphur dioxide) and H2S (hydrogen sulphide), where today we don&#8217;t have credible viable solutions and we need to work on those,&#8221; said Klingenberg.</blockquote>
The Department of Environmental Affairs had granted postponements in 2015 to applicants including Sasol, Eskom and Anglo American Platinum until 2020 to comply with the new minimum emissions standards for air quality laws.
<blockquote>&#8220;The large majority of the minimum emissions status for 2015 we were able to comply with but in some areas we need time to implement projects,&#8221; said Klingenberg.</blockquote>
South Africa&#8217;s government wants to reduce harmful emissions by 34 percent by 2020, with the minimum emissions standards for air quality laws covering particulate, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.
(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Mark Potter)
&nbsp;

S.Africa’s Sasol to apply for delay to 2020 air pollution deadline

Giselda Vagnoni and Steve Scherer | TAORMINA, Italy
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations met African heads of state on Saturday, the final day of their annual summit which has been marked by discord over climate change, but unity on tackling terrorism.
Italy had hoped to make Africa the major focus of the annual G7 gathering, holding the discussions on the island of Sicily that has taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past four years as they flee war and poverty back home.
However, the two-day meeting got overshadowed by a suicide bombing in northern England on Monday that killed 22 people, and also got bogged down by lengthy discussions on the merit of free trade and the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.
U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to honour a U.S. commitment to greenhouse gas emissions and has pushed back against a lattice of international trade accords that he says have hurt American economic interests.
&#8220;We are having to talk about things settled years ago,&#8221; said a top level member of one G7 delegation, frustrated by the U.S. position.
Diplomats from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States worked late into the night to agree on the final communique, which was expected to be little more than six pages long, against 32 pages last year.
A French presidential source said substantial progress had been made on the question of trade, particularly in the area of multilateralism, suggesting Trump may have bowed to pressure for a more collaborative approach to international commerce.
Italy had hoped to emphasise the positive impact migration can have and to call on industrialised nations to open up more legal channels for immigration to try to slow the flow of people risking their lives to reach Europe on flimsy boats from Libya.
That idea was shot down ahead of the meeting.
&#8220;There was very strong opposition by the Americans and British who wanted to refocus on security and water down the expansive language on freedom of movement,&#8221; said a European diplomat, who declined to be named.
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT
Security questions dominated initial G7 discussion on Friday and the leaders issued a statement telling internet service providers and social media firms to &#8220;substantially increase&#8221; their efforts to rein in extremist content.
The leaders of Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria&#8217;s acting president joined the talks on Saturday morning, along with the heads of the African Union, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
&#8220;Perhaps the choice (to be in) Taormina and Sicily says much about how important our relations are with Africa,&#8221; Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in opening remarks.
&#8220;Today our discussion on Africa will focus on the need for a partnership across all sectors &#8230; with innovation and development our core objective,&#8221; he said, speaking in Italian.
Unlike other leaders, Trump, who was sitting between the heads of state of Tunisia and Niger, did not put on headphones to listen to a simultaneous translation.
The U.S. president will return to Washington later on Saturday at the end of a nine-day tour of the Middle East and Europe &#8212; his first foreign trip since taking office.
Unlike other G7 leaders, he is not due to give a closing press conference before flying out.
U.S. officials said he had enjoyed &#8220;robust&#8221; conversations with his allies in Sicily and had also learnt a lot &#8212; especially in the debate on climate change, which he has previously dismissed as a hoax.
&#8220;He came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving which exactly as they should be,&#8221; Trump&#8217;s economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Giselda Vagnoni, John Irish, and Andrea Rinke; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Noah Barkin and Toby Chopra)

G7 leaders turn gaze to Africa, climate harmony elusive

South African farmers have planted a third more hectares with maize this season following increased rainfall and favourable climate conditions, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.
South Africa&#8217;s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) is expected to forecast the planted area at 2.6 million hectares, up 33.5 percent from the 1.947 million hectares planted last year, according to an average estimate of five traders and analysts polled by Reuters.
The range was 2.4 million to 2.8 million hectares. The poll is 7 percent higher than the CEC&#8217;s last forecast of 2.44 million hectares.
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The CEC will issue its preliminary forecast for the area planted for the 2016/17 maize growing season on Jan. 26.
Improved weather conditions caused by a weak La Nina weather system, associated in southern Africa with increased rainfall and lower temperatures, are expected to encourage farmers to plant more than last season.
&#8220;The increase is due to good rain over the festive season,&#8221; said a trader.
Rainfall for the remainder of the summer season until April will be above normal according to the latest forecast from the South African Weather Service, helping to improve soil moisture and raise dam levels following a severe drought.
Industry group Grain SA, which forecast the plantings at 2.4 million hectares this season, sees a 2017 maize surplus which could reduce food price inflation in South Africa.
Prices for white maize hit record prices above 5,200 rand ($385) per tonne last January, pushing up food prices and helping to fuel inflation.
($1 = 13.5150 rand)﻿

South African farmers plant a third more maize as rains return

The number of Africans at risk of malaria who live near dams will nearly double to 25 million by 2080 as areas where the disease is not currently present will become transmission zones due to climate change, researchers said on Monday.
Without prevention measures, the number of malaria cases associated with dams could triple to nearly 3 million a year over the same period, they said in a study published in Malaria Journal.
&#8220;While dams clearly bring many benefits &#8230; the role of climate change on malaria around dams will fundamentally alter the current impact,&#8221; said Solomon Kibret of the University of California and the paper&#8217;s lead author.
&#8220;Accurately predicting the impacts of such changes is critical to planning effective disease control,&#8221; he said in a statement.
Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, which breed in stagnant water such as shallow puddles along dam shorelines.
The disease kills around 400,000 people a year, the vast majority of them children and babies in sub-Saharan Africa. World Health Organization (WHO) data show there are around 200 million malaria cases a year.
More than half of dams that are located in malaria-free areas that will turn into transmission zones as temperatures rise due to climate change are mainly found in the east African highlands and southern Africa, the study said.
In those regions the impact of dams may be especially harsh because of lower immunity among people who have not had to deal with the disease before, it said.
Africa is experiencing a surge in dam construction so as to generate electricity, irrigate crops and store water for fast-growing populations.
Dams should be designed and managed to minimise the breeding of mosquitoes, such as periodically drying out shoreline areas or introducing fish that eat mosquito larva in reservoirs, said the study.﻿

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climate

Net-Zero Industry Tracker: $13.5 Trillion Investment Needed to Fast-Track Decarbonization of Key Hard-to-Abate Industry Sectors

Europe admits it’ll have to burn more coal as it tries to wean itself off Russian energy

Op-Ed – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: A global response to COVID-19 that doesn’t fully support developing countries is no response at all

Climate explained: how much of climate change is natural? How much is man-made?

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Joyce Msuya on achieving sustainable development in East Africa

World Bank & AfDB commit over $47bn for African climate finance

Here’s how the residents of African cities are creating solutions for climate change

Why Africans are wary of re-engineering the climate

Elon Musk is leaving presidential councils over withdrawal from Paris accord

S.Africa’s Sasol to apply for delay to 2020 air pollution deadline

G7 leaders turn gaze to Africa, climate harmony elusive

South African farmers plant a third more maize as rains return

Research shows climate change could double malaria numbers in Africa

News Tips

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