UN council urges Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan to restart dam talks

The UN Security Council on Wednesday urged Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to resume African Union-led talks to reach a binding deal “within a reasonable timeframe” over the operation of a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. Egypt and Sudan had both called on the council to help resolve the dispute after Ethiopia began filling the reservoir behind its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in July for a second year. Ethiopia is opposed to any council involvement.
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Rich nations head to South Africa seeking coal exit deal

Four of the world’s richest nations will send a delegation to South Africa as soon as next week to seek a deal to begin closing the country’s coal-fired plants, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials from the US, UK, France and Germany are looking for an agreement with Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which generates almost all of South Africa’s power from a fleet of 15 coal plants. Any deal struck could be announced during the United Nations climate talks known as COP26, set to start in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 31, one of the people said.
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BlueNova opens Intelligent Energy Storage Systems production facility

South African energy storage company BlueNova Energy on September 15 launched its new office and factory space in Pretoria East.  The official opening of the new Intelligent Energy Storage Systems (iESS) production facility marks a critical milestone towards achieving BlueNova’s production goal of producing 200 MWh monthly for 2022.
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Coalition plans marches in pursuit of a just transition

Youth leaders, civil society groups, trade unions and grassroots movements under the Climate Justice Coalition have expressed dissatisfaction with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and will, as a result, hold planned nationwide marches, it said on September 15. The coalition bemoaned that the DMRE “has continued to approve gas and coal projects while disregarding any just energy plan”.
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CDH says project developers may see quicker turnaround timing of WUL processing in future

Water use licence (WUL) application delays can result in infrastructure projects missing development deadlines, developers incurring additional costs, and in some extreme cases, may prevent projects from being developed at all.

This can result in a cost burden on developers who have incurred costs developing, permitting and bidding projects, and have a broader impact on the South African economy which desperately needs expedited infrastructure development to take place.

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FirstRand to end funding for new coal mines, power plants

South Africa’s FirstRand will end funding for new coal-fired power stations and coal mines and has lowered the cap on its coal exposure as part of moves to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, it said on Wednesday. South Africa’s banks are the biggest on the continent, with the likes of FirstRand major lenders to fossil fuel projects, especially in oil and gas, and are increasingly under pressure from environmental groups to turn off the taps.
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Net-zero goal could be new ‘shared vision that binds’ South Africa

A just transition towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 offers significant opportunities for a new growth path built on green industrialisation and could provide the anchor for a new “shared vision that binds us”, former Deputy Finance Minister and State Capture whistle-blower Mcebisi Jonas contends. Delivering a keynote address during a virtual meeting of the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), Jonas argued that the just transition was not merely about reducing carbon emissions but also about placing the country on a new green industrialisation path to simultaneously address growth, jobs and transformation.
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South Africa risks becoming an outlier with its coal plans, says think tank

South Africa risks becoming an outlier in the global community if it pushes ahead with plans to develop new coal-fired power plants, says climate change think tank E3G.

E3G says the country is driving these plans despite there having been a 76% reduction in proposed new coal power generation capacity globally, since the negotiation of the Paris Agreement in 2015.

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Eskom evacuates staff who hid in locked Ga-Rankuwa offices to escape angry residents

Power utility Eskom safely evacuated its employees that it claimed were being held against their will by angry residents of Morula View in Mabopane, north of Pretoria, over the lack of power supply in the area. According to Eskom, the hostage situation followed the community’s demand for the replacement of a mini-substation in their area.
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South Africa’s green energy push hinges on R402bn debt fix

The head of South Africa’s State power utility needs to substantially reduce its R402-billion of debt to realise his vision of transforming the coal-addicted behemoth into a leading green-energy producer and create as many as 300 000 jobs in the process. Eskom Holdings supplies more than 90% of the nation’s electricity, the bulk of it from coal, and emits more than two-fifths of the nation’s greenhouse gases. Andre de Ruyter, 53, its chief executive officer, wants to tap concessional loans from development finance institutions to finance renewable plants in exchange for accelerating the closure of some of its old, polluting power stations.
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