http://www.cpsl.co.za Inspiring Sustainability Leadership, Learning and Change Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:44:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://www.cpsl.co.za/2010/03/jo-da-silva-built-environment-brokering-the-relationship-between-people-and-planet/ The Copenhagen Accord that was negotiated on the last few days of the Copenhagen Summit in December '09, set a 31 January deadline for countries to commit to national targets for curbs in emissions until 2020. The UN recently announced that fifty five countries, responsible for almost 80% of world greenhouse ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2010/02/major-emmitters-set-carbon-goals-post-copenhagen/ South Africa's National Treasury has confirmed that they intend to go ahead with the implementation of a carbon emission tax on imported vehicles from the 1st of March 2010. The tax will be levied at the following rates: 8% on vehicles emitting greenhouse gasses of 240 grams per kilometre 10,7% on 280 grams ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2010/01/green-tax-on-imported-vehicles-to-be-implemented/ While producing biofuels from feedstock has drawn heavy criticism, much money and research is being put into next generation biofuels. The world’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, that has shunned other forms of renewable energy, has poured billions into next generation biofuel R&D. One of the most exciting innovations in this ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/11/joule-solar-fuel/ Water and the lack thereof have been cited by water experts to be at least as big a problem as climate change in the twenty first century. About 2 billion people around the world either lack access to sufficient quantities of water or are supplied with water unfit for drinking ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/11/comprehensive-water-management/ Burning natural gas made from coal in a modern power plant generates about 60 percent less in greenhouse-¬gas emissions than burning coal directly and eliminates almost all other pollutants. Converting coal into natural gas has long been too expensive to implement on a large scale. But, GreatPoint Energy has developed ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/11/greatpoint-energy-hydromethanation/ The Direct Carbon Fuel Cell (DCFC) converts fuel to electricity directly rather than burning it to boil water to make steam to turn a turbine, to turn a generator, to produce electricity. The DCFC can convert solid fuels to electricity at 70% efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions by 50% without ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/11/direct-carbon-fuel-cells/ SA has no detailed climate change policy, as the government acknowledges. It is too late to develop one before next month’s Copenhagen conference. This is disappointing, given that SA is a Group of 20 economy and the world’s 13th-biggest CO² emitter, but not fatal as long as detailed, informed policy ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/11/jeremy-baskin-sa-has-compelling-reasons-to-cut-hothouse-emissions/ Chinese scientists claim to be able to control the weather by firing chemical filled rockets into the clouds to catalyze precipitation or to drive rain away. Although the success of such weather alchemy is still disputed, there seems to be a growing interest in large scale geo-engineering exploits to counteract the ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/11/can-we-manipulate-the-weather/ Biomass, biogas and three varieties of solar power technology were on Friday added to the list of renewable energy sources that qualify for feed-in tariffs to be paid by Eskom. The tariffs, known in South Africa as Refit, are set to top up earnings of independent power producers (IPPs). They are ... http://www.cpsl.co.za/2009/11/more-renewable-energy-sources-added-to-refit/