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Articles by David Hallowes
‘A transformational just transition cannot be imposed’
By Kershni Ramreddi and David Hallowes Developing economic and political power to transition from an extractive to a regenerative economy requires the implementation of a vision-led, integrated, and place-based set of principles, methods, and practices known as “just transition”. Story continues below Advertisement This entails tackling the production and consumption cycles comprehensively, without creating waste.
PCC EXPERT SERIES – OUR TRANSITION: A just transition must transform our relationship to each other and to the Earth
PCC EXPERT SERIES – OUR TRANSITION This essay addresses three related imperatives: that a just transition must be for all, that mitigation and adaptation must be thought of together, and that the neoliberal regime of austerity, secrecy and corruption must be transformed into an open democracy founded on deep participation and accountability. The Minerals-Energy Complex Over the past century, South Africa’s economy was dominated and shaped by the minerals-energy complex (MEC).
Environmentalists opposed Medupi from beginning to end
While the bushveld was being bulldozed to clear the land for Medupi in 2007 Eskom’s then CEO, Jacob Maroga, told us the Waterberg region was not sufficiently polluted to warrant installing sulphur scrubbers. The comment echoed the notorious internal memo circulated by World Bank official Lawrence Summers, in which he argued that poor countries were underpolluted and “the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable”.
Africa: False Zero - or Are the Corporations Really Trying to Save the Planet?
The net of net zero is composed of restored nature which will take back the fossil carbon that BP sucks from beneath the earth and burns into the sky. And then there's the net zero from Shell and Total, from every mining house, from cement and steel makers, from shining corporate buildings, from Bunge and the supermarket giants, from ships and aeroplanes, from Humvees, tanks, gunships and rockets to Mars...
OPINIONISTA: False Zero — or are the corporations really trying to save the planet?
The net of net zero is composed of restored nature which will take back the fossil carbon that BP sucks from beneath the earth and burns into the sky.
OPINIONISTA: Medupi: A story of smoke and mirrors, debt and derangement
When it comes to Eskom and the World Bank, the new deal looks very much like the old deal – except with a fresh coat of green eco-friendly paint that is already flaking off. Eskom’s new build programme was in trouble from the get go. That sinking feeling started with the foundations at Medupi, the fourth biggest coal-fired power station in the world, as Eskom liked to boast, and too heavy for the ground beneath it. More concrete was poured.
OPINIONISTA: Clean coal, the message returned with warm regards to sender
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has urged companies to invest in ‘clean coal’, but ‘clean coal’ technologies are expensive, add to the enormous resource consumption of coal-fired generation, and either don’t work or make little difference to the harm done to health and the environment. The business end of the coal lobby met at the Southern African Coal Conference in Cape Town last week.
OPINIONISTA: Standard greenwash: A coal-fired power plant spews carbon — no matter what the bank says
Talking about climate change, Standard Bank seems to be on its way to a new advertising slogan: Doing the right business the right way. Except it won’t do that. At its AGM on Wednesday, Standard Bank is fighting off a shareholder resolution that it disclose its exposure to climate risk — that is, how heavily it is invested in fossil fuel assets and, consequently, how much it might lose as the pressure to respond to climate change increases. Evidently, it would rather we didn’t know.
South Africa: Resgen's Boikarabelo - Bust in the Bushveld?
analysis By David Hallowes Resgen is an Australian corporation with just one asset - the part of the bushveld which they have yet to develop as the Boikarabelo coal mine. It has no income and losses are mounting. It's largest shareholder: The Public Investment Corporation. The Waterberg is being touted as South Africa's new coal frontier to replace declining production from the central coal fields of the Mpumalanga Highveld.
Resgen’s Boikarabelo: Bust in the bushveld?
Resgen is an Australian corporation with just one asset – the part of the bushveld which they have yet to develop as the Boikarabelo coal mine. It has no income and losses are mounting. It’s largest shareholder: The Public Investment Corporation. The Waterberg is being touted as South Africa’s new coal frontier to replace declining production from the central coal fields of the Mpumalanga Highveld.
IRP 2018 gets unreal on climate and health
Energy minister Jeff Radebe assures us that the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2018 is compatible with South Africa’s international climate commitments. Regrettably, this is the problem. South Africa’s “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) to the Paris Agreement avoids recognising the urgency of responding to climate change and the IRP 2018 follows suite.
Analysis: SA holds its breath as Ramaphosa solidifies his grip on ANC power
In the month since Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected leader of the ANC (by only 179 votes), the most important question has been around the solidity of his mandate.
Analysis: A drought of nature compounded by a drought in leadership
The politics of water in times of scarcity is not about counting ever-evaporating cubic metres of dam water, as important as this is, but the creeping annihilation of South Africa’s fragile social fabric and economic sustainability. From Cape Town to Ugu in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape’s Butterworth and the dusty streets of water-limited councils in the Free State, North West and elsewhere, official paralysis amid political brinkmanship is the order of the day.
Zuma’s Exit: It’s no longer IF he goes - it’s When and How (amnesty or not)
As 2017 drew to a close and the ANC’s 54th national conference approached, it became clear that it no longer was an issue of if but rather of how and when President Jacob Zuma would go. Now that the new leadership – under ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa – has had its first meeting, that plan is taking shape. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS. There has been an overwhelming sense of relief among ordinary ANC campaigners in the past month or so, following President Jacob Zuma’s departure from the ANC’s top spot.
South Africa: Suffocating in the Coal Economy
analysis By David HallowesThere is great urgency to moving rapidly off fossil fuels. It will not stop climate change in its tracks but it might just leave us with a liveable climate in the second half of the century. Global heat records were broken three years in a row in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The last two were El Niño years which push up the heat. Global temperatures were supposed to come off the boil as El Niño switched to La Niña in 2017.
Suffocating in the coal economy
There is great urgency to moving rapidly off fossil fuels. It will not stop climate change in its tracks but it might just leave us with a liveable climate in the second half of the century. Global heat records were broken three years in a row in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The last two were El Niño years which push up the heat. Global temperatures were supposed to come off the boil as El Niño switched to La Niña in 2017. Thus far, however, 2017 is the second hottest year after 2016.
South Africa: Death and Destruction - What's Left Out of Energy Planning
analysis By David HallowesThe Department of Energy's released Integrated Resource Plan does not seriously factor in the pollution impact of its current and planned energy mix and appears to have distorted the data to favour coal and nuclear. Pollution from Eskom's power plants result in 2,240 attributable deaths each year. And every day, some 11,000 people are physically restricted in what they can do while 2,700 lose the day's work.
Death and destruction: What’s left out of energy planning
The Department of Energy's released Integrated Resource Plan does not seriously factor in the pollution impact of its current and planned energy mix and appears to have distorted the data to favour coal and nuclear. Pollution from Eskom’s power plants result in 2,240 attributable deaths each year. And every day, some 11,000 people are physically restricted in what they can do while 2,700 lose the day’s work.
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