All environmental externalities emanate from the economy and they also reflect the evolution and moment at which societal values are. In reality, as people’s income and levels of education grow, so... 

While the cost of electricity steadily rises and the demand for energy increases, South Africa, a country boasting abundant sunlight, continues to dig deep for high-quality coal to power the... 

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are up for review and, by 2015, a new MDG framework has to be put in place, and sustainability issues are gaining prominence. MDG 7 focuses on the... 

Is it possible that we can have a new world in which the central grid is outdated and a more diffused and dispersed system takes its place? Is this wishful thinking? 

The National Development Plan (NDP) is receiving vitriol from both the left and liberals these days. The left sees the NDP as being too market friendly, while the right sees it as being too Statist. 

Each day, more oil is discovered and the earth seems to spew more of the stuff, mocking the peak oil pundits and adding to the anxieties of climate change watchers. However, increasing supply... 

In South Africa, there is considerable ambiguity and debate about the implications of tax distortions in the economy and the tax interaction effects arising from the carbon tax. There have been... 

Minds become focused when things get real rather than abstract. This is what is beginning to happen since the National Treasury released its new discussion document on the carbon tax and the... 

The Long-Term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS) envisage a purposive transition during which there are insignificant barriers, there is no competition for resources, obtaining resources is not a problem... 

Since the first Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) was drafted in 2010, the world has changed: Fukushima happened, more gas has been confirmed off the east coast of Africa, Germany has decided to stop... 

Green growth or deep green economy? The green economy debate has been in South Africa for at least 5 years. The green economy also has other names: “low carbon transition”, “sustainable... 

The great project Mthombo (new large refinery capacity) and the proposed 9.6 GW nuclear fleet is still on the cards.  Both do not only describe the need for vast capital investments but also the... 

Despite the failure of the recent round of the Doha climate change talks, the national project on a low-carbon transition requires continued impetus. 

Many moons ago, South Africa did pioneering work on how best we can meet our international climate mitigation obligations.  

I attended a recent workshop jointly hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa and the German National Academy of Sciences (which is known as Lepoldina) in Pretoria. 

The independent power producer (IPP) process has an explicit specification that communities should be co-owners in any renewables projects in terms of government's broad-based black economic... 

Is distributed generation the future and the central grid old hat? There is a great facility in convention: its longevity of presence gives it confidence that nothing after it is possible nor... 

Intra-regional trade between South Africa and Africa is growing but still low compared to other regions in the world. Tomorrow’s economic prospects for South Africa lay firmly in how the regional... 

The proposal to introduce an independent system and market operator (ISMO) into South Africa’s power generation sector seems to have found favour with government. However, it remains to be seen... 

There are so many nonsensical comments about renewables and, surprisingly, even very intelligent people also make unfounded and unintelligent comments. 

The European Union (EU) has unilaterally declared that it wants all planes entering or leaving the EU territory to pay an emissions tax. The bloc has long had an emissions trading scheme (ETS) that... 

I recently at a thorium conference in Cape Town hosted by the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.  

The National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) recently hosted an international conference on alternative models of ownership for renewables other than independent power producers (IPPs). International... 

For a long time, concentrating solar power (CSP) was seen as a cutting-edge renewables technology that would best meet South Africa’s energy security needs and support the creation of new... 

Fourteen days of deliberations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change seventeeth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) culminated in a diplomatic coup where, for the first time,... 

Some predictions are easy and others require a savant’s wisdom to penetrate the unseen world. One can be sure the outcome of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's seventeeth... 

The Australian government recently just managed to squeeze through carbon tax legislation. The Australian system starts off with a fixed price, eventually moving to a trading scheme. India already... 

The world was once run on three big economic engines: Europe, North America and Japan. These engines of growth are slowing down but three or four or five new engines have come onto the scene with... 

It is somewhat tired argument to suggest that renewables will make no progress as a technology and that they will never compete with coal or nuclear. 

I recently attended what is probably the most insightful conference I have ever attended – not because it was attended mostly by industry players but because the debate was vigorous and... 

Previously, I noted some reservations about the idea of an independent system and market operator (ISMO). 

You have probably heard this before: green industries will steal jobs from other sectors. Superficial logic invites superficial conclusions. But here is an exploration that may help to deepen the... 

After the Japanese nuclear accident following the tsunami there has been a lot of chatter by defenders of nuclear power that nuclear is still here to stay. That may be true. Nuclear technology... 

While Shell is attracting the most negative publicity owing to its application to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa for exploration rights in the Karoo, other companies have also submitted... 

The National Treasury’s deadline for comments on the draft discussion document on carbon taxes was February 28. Business and industry have set up a special task team on the carbon tax. They do not... 

A number of public statements on the issue of an Independent System and Market Operator (ISMO) have been made by government officials in the last year or so. Whether an ISMO is the best route to go... 

The 38-page National Climate Change Green Paper was released just before most of South Africa’s negotiating team went to Cancun.  

When you land in Cancun, what strike you most starkly are concrete blocks upon concrete blocks that have taken occupation where lush mangroves once existed.  

The solar park idea raises the question of how South Africa should be positioning itself to take advantage of the country's abundant solar resources.  

What is disturbing is not the debate about baseload power versus intermittent power. This debate is always useful as we grapple with the the question of what our energy mix should be going into the... 

Propaganda has it that South Africa has enough coal to fire our power plants for 200 years or until alternatives that can compete with coal come onto the market. But we may not have enough coal to... 

No sooner was the announcement that a carbon tax was on the cards made than the hecklers from special interest groups and their lobbyists started coming out of the woodwork.