Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dr Dion George has approved the publication of the draft ‘National Greenhouse Gas Carbon Budget and Mitigation Plan Regulations’ for public comment. The regulations, alongside the accompanying declaration of the list of greenhouse gases and activities and associated technical guidelines, will be published in early August.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered an optimistic assessment of the economic reforms being undertaken in South Africa’s electricity and freight logistics sectors, amid growing concern about the pace of progress with regard to opening the country’s railways and ports to competition and signs of potential stalling in the electricity sector. In his weekly letter, Ramaphosa highlighted the release of the latest progress report on Operation Vulindlela, the scope of which was recently widened by the Government of National Unity to include municipal recovery, digital services and spatial equality components.
State-owned utility Eskom has been ordered by a high court to pay more than R1-billion to French nuclear energy company Framatome, after contract and project management problems delayed a steam generator swap at the entity’s Koeberg nuclear power plant, newspaper Business Day reports. In an article on July 21, reporter Kabelo Khumalo reports that the adjudication process, which was handled by advocate Peter Ramsden, resulted in the court ordering Eskom to pay Framatome €35.2-million (R727-million) and a further R256.6-million, in line with Ramsden’s earlier findings.
Mozambique won World Bank backing for its plan to build Southern Africa’s biggest hydropower plant in half a century. The lender plans to provide debt and equity funding as well as risk guarantees and insurance for the $5-billion Mphanda Nkuwa plant on the Zambezi river and an associated $1.4-billion power transmission project, World Bank President Ajay Banga said in an interview in Mozambique.