Living with an electricity monopoly mandated to provide basic services is always a double-edged sword. If it is well run and efficient, it can be a boon for consumers and the public in general. If... 

I attended a recent Academy of Science of South Africa (Assaf) conference on nuclear power in Pretoria.  It brought to fore the mountain of justification – moral, financial and technical – the... 

There is heightened activity on the shale-gas front. Government is pushing ahead with hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the Department of Environmental Affairs recently completed a life-cycle... 

On the surface, the relation between high electricity and oil prices and food inflation can be perceived as linear rather than dynamic. There is a relation but it is more complicated. Here are few... 

The latest version of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) has some interesting changes, which could have far-reaching consequences for South Africa’s electricity mix. This IRP is a vast improvement... 

The recent rise in electricity prices is eating away at everybody’s pockets. While energy-intensive users are the largest consumers of electricity, in terms of total share, they receive prices at... 

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Is it possible that we can have a new world in which the central grid is outdated and a more diffused and dispersed system takes its place?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

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,...