Current Articles
-
" alt="Can South Africa really reduce its carbon footprint by 34%?" />
Can South Africa really reduce its carbon footprint by 34%?
30 July 2010
For SA policy makers pressured to put the economy onto a stronger job growth trajectory, meeting ambitious climate-change goals will add to a tricky balancing act.
This is an extract from an article written by Carol Paton for the Financial Mail, published in the 30 July 2010 edition and online on 29 July 2010.
On December 6 last year, just before President Jacob Zuma jetted off to Copenhagen to meet 110 other heads of state, his office issued a press statement: South Africa would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by 2020, and by 42% by 2025. Emissions were expected to rise until 2020, when they would peak, plateau for a decade, and then decline in absolute terms.
As the summit unfolded it became clear what must have happened: just as developing countries wanted to pressure developed countries into binding targets, the richer nations wanted the same from the emerging world. Allied with emerging powerhouses China, India and Brazil — which had all come forward and made pledges — and eager to play in the major league, SA had to commit to targets even if it did so in a rush and without a plan on how it would do it.
Therein lie the problems. SA’s commitment to an ambitious target will motivate more and bigger mitigating actions, which will be good for SA’s competitiveness in the long run. But the targets are far away from commercial and macroeconomic reality. Unlike China, India and Brazil, whose booming economies mean abundant resources are available for mitigation actions, the SA state does not have similar affluence.
What will the targets mean for the economy and business?
SA has a dirty economy, given its historical dependence on cheap coal to generate electricity. On a per capita basis, GHG emissions in SA are as much as the UK’s and close to Germany’s, despite being a smaller economy. Though the last GHG inventory in SA has the year 2000 as a baseline, it is now estimated that in terms of scale, the SA economy emits 500Mt of carbon dioxide in a year.
The Energy Research Centre (ERC) is the group that did the technical work that informed the 34% target. Three years ago the centre was asked by the then minister of environmental affairs & tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, to develop a set of long-term mitigation scenarios.
As it happened, there were significant differences between what in 2007 was assumed would happen and what is believed will happen now. For example, the growth assumptions in the “business as usual trajectory” were very bullish. As the economy slowed quite unexpectedly from 2009, it’s likely that the actual emissions were not as high as expected. But the 34% target remained.
A second difference was that much of what businesses like Eskom and Sasol believed was possible was based on the assumption that technology to do carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) — which amounts to capturing emissions, turning them into solid form and then burying them in the ground or in sludge dams — would be well-developed. But though CCS pilot projects have begun, the technology is a long way from being established.
In short, how SA will reach its 34% mitigation target from “business as usual” by 2020 is vague. Two processes are under way in government that will begin to tackle this. The first is to compile the climate change green paper, and then the white paper that will lead to legislation. The second is the compilation of the second Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2) by the department of energy, which will determine what SA’s energy mix will be for the next 25 years.
Trade & industry minister Rob Davies is looking to new green industries as job creators. The problem is that SA’s industrial policy aims to put SA on a path on which it beneficiates its mineral resources. Beneficiation is not compatible with a low-carbon future.
For SA policy makers pressured to put the economy onto a stronger job growth trajectory and speed up the delivery of social services, meeting ambitious climate-change goals will add to an already tricky balancing act.
Read the full article at the Financial Mail.
-
" alt="Monumental AIDS breakthrough – or is it?" />
Monumental AIDS breakthrough – or is it?
26 July 2010
Action needs to be taken to eradicate HIV/Aids, not just treat its victims or attempt to control its spread.
John R. Talbott is the bestselling author of eight books on economics and politics that have accurately detailed and predicted the causes and devastating effects of the current financial crisis. In 2007, Talbott authored two articles on achieving Aids prevention and the need for confidential and compulsory universal testing in the most infected countries after having spent three months living in Aids-ravaged Botswana. This article was first published by Huffington Post.
A vaginal gel applied by women prior to sexual encounters has been found in a double blind field test conducted in South Africa to reduce AIDS infection rates by 39%. Upon first hearing this, it would be natural to conclude that use of this gel would reduce reported cases of AIDS in Africa by 39%; or, if you were a woman living in Africa you might conclude that use of this gel might dramatically help you from getting infected in the future. You would not be alone in thinking this was a groundbreaking discovery as the announcement of these test results brought a standing ovation from the audience of scientists and NGO’ers at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna.
-
There is more to social investment than giving money
21 July 2010
Sizwe Nxasana is the CEO of the FirstRand Group, and Chairman of the FirstRand Foundation. This article was originally published by Business Day on 21 July 2010.
For many companies, corporate social investment means writing out cheques. These companies fulfil their corporate social investment requirements but have little real involvement in the initiatives which they fund.
But the partnership approach, whereby companies approach corporate social investment in a far more consultative manner, means greater involvement on the company’s part, and usually results in more sustainable solutions for its beneficiaries.
-
" alt="Unemployment and the rights of workers" />
Unemployment and the rights of workers
20 July 2010
The most important, single issue facing government today is improving conditions for greater labour absorption.
Jasson Urbach is an economist at the Free Market Foundation.
The South African Bill of Rights says, “Every citizen has the right to choose their trade, occupation or profession freely.” But local laws and institutions do not fully support that right, and one consequence is our staggering unemployment rate.
-
" alt="Development aid must target knowledge" />
Development aid must target knowledge
19 July 2010
External funding for African universities is low and is largely sourced from donor agencies whose support is tied to their development agendas.
Written by Dr Trish Gibbon, Director of Academic Planning and Policy Implementation at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. This article was originally published by University World News.
Development aid from donor countries to Africa is usually directed to issues identified as priorities in the home country’s development agenda – issues such as HIV and Aids, poverty reduction, primary health care and food security, among others – according to Peter Maassen, professor of higher education at the University of Oslo. This kind of focus is often at the expense of high-level knowledge development such as that produced within the research culture of universities.
-
" alt="Education according to demand, not supply" />
Education according to demand, not supply
13 July 2010
Children can be passionate about what they were learning instead of chained to a school desk to learn mass taught subjects of little value to them and their future, says Davie
Eustace Davie is a director of the Free Market Foundation
Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech still echoes down the years to all who care about freedom. On 28 August 1963, in Washington DC, he said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” Today, almost half a century later, our children are badly in need of another great champion as articulate, courageous and passionate as Martin Luther King to argue and plead for their emancipation from bondage.
Almost without exception, children worldwide and their parents are denied the right to decide what type of learning experiences they should undergo to equip them to live productive and happy lives. Compulsory schooling laws and regulations are based on the strange premise that parents are not fit to decide how their children should be educated, and even worse, that they do not care about their welfare. Instead, strangers, who know nothing about the children’s characters, talents and abilities, supposedly do have the necessary knowledge and insights to prescribe in the finest detail what they must learn, how they must learn, and where they must learn that which is prescribed to them.
-
" alt="Orphans and vulnerable children: A corporate social investor’s basic guide" />
Orphans and vulnerable children: A corporate social investor’s basic guide
12 July 2010
During President Zuma’s state of the nation address in 2009, he stated: “… For as long as there are children who do not have the means nor the opportunity to receive a decent education; we shall not rest, and we dare not falter, in our drive to eradicate poverty.”
According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), children’s rights are being drastically violated, specifically as a result of HIV/Aids.
These violated rights include: the right to family life and alternative care; the right to an adequate standard of living; the right to social security; the right to life and healthcare; the right to education; the right to play and recreation; the right to be protected from abuse and neglect; the right to be protected from exploitation; the rights of children with special needs; the right to participation, opinions and beliefs; and the right not to suffer discrimination.
-
" alt="South African education is doomed until teachers are taught" />
South African education is doomed until teachers are taught
9 July 2010
Teachers need to be kept up to date with the curriculum especially in subjects that are changing rapidly like maths, science and language.
Jane Roach is a CSI specialist in education at Tshikululu Social Investments.
The Minister of Basic Education’s statement on the review of the national curriculum statement (6 July 2010) highlights the fact that no curriculum can be static. The curriculum should meet the present and potential needs of the country and it has been widely acknowledged there are some glaring gaps in the curriculum which needed to be addressed in order for learners to progress from the GET (General Education and Training) to the FET (Further Education and training) phase smoothly.
But, are the people in the trenches – the school management teams, the teachers, the parents and the learners – going to be supported in the process?
-
CSI needs profound return on investment
Tracey Henry is CEO of Tshikululu Social Investments.
Albert Einstein once said that “everything that can be counted does not necessarily count and everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted”. In all our development work, we should worry less about the rand value of our corporate social investment (CSI), and more about backing real change champions whose work broadens opportunity in South Africa. Our efforts should be to get a proper social return on our investments.
-
" alt="Why business should stop apologising" />
Why business should stop apologising
Ann Bernsteinis the executive director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise.The perspectives and interests of those who live in rich, western countries dominate the global conversation about business and society. Activists, analysts and others – however well intentioned – do not grasp the realities of poverty and the hard choices of development outside the rich industrialised world. As a result, the debate about business, “responsibility” and corporate involvement in development is distorted with few voices from developing countries being heard. As a consequence the positive contribution of ‘just doing business’ is almost completely ignored.
