Chew On This: Cows Help Power BMW Plant in South Africa
What do 25,000 cows have to do with the creation of BMW's third-generation BMW X3?
South Africa
Architects Pledge Zero Carbon Emissions by Buildings
The International Union of Architects (UIA), representing about 1.3 million architects worldwide, has pledged to phase out carbon emissions by buildings by 2050. The 2050 Imperative, unanimously adopted at the UIA World Congress in Durban, South Africa, commits member organizations to advocacy and promotion pertaining to planning and design of ... Read more »
Cleantech Open Expands into Six Countries
Clean-technology accelerator the Cleantech Open is expanding its program for cleantech startups to six countries. In partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and local executing partners, the Cleantech Open is launching six international cleantech accelerators in Armenia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa ... Read more »
Drought Forces Water Restrictions on Platinum Mines
Platinum mines including those operated by Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin around the South African mining city of Rustenburg have been asked to cut their water use because of a drought, according to media reports. Premier Thandi Modise last month declared a drought across the entire North West ... Read more »
Policy & Enforcement Briefing: Drug Disposal, HFCs, Climate Hearing
The King County, Wash., board of health passed a law requiring that pharmaceutical companies pay for the disposal of prescription and over-the-counter medicines – only the second such municipal ordinance in the country. Alameda County, Calif., passed drug disposal regulations in July 2012, Waste & Recycling News reports. The USDA is considering ... Read more »
IBM Mobile App to Help Solve Water Challenges
IBM has launched a crowdsourcing project to help capture, share and analyze information about the water distribution system in South Africa. The project, called WaterWatchers, is driven by a free mobile phone application and SMS capability that will enable South African citizens to report water leaks, faulty water pipes and ... Read more »
ArcelorMittal, Gold Fields Win Carbon Tax Delay
After objections from heavy polluters, including metal companies ArcelorMittal and Gold Fields, South Africa has delayed implementing a carbon tax until 2015. In his budget speech this week, minister of finance Pravin Gordhan said the government will tax carbon emissions beginning in 2015 at a rate of R120 ($13.37) per ton ... Read more »
Policy & Enforcement Briefing: Earthjustice Fracking Suit, Prestige Trial Opens, Canadian Protectionism
Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the state of California on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, Environmental Working Group and the Sierra Club in an effort to stop hydraulic fracturing. The suit accuses the California Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources of failing to ... Read more »
Policy & Enforcement Briefing: Manufacturing Tax Credit, Natural Gas Drilling, Ener1 Chapter 11, Tier 3 Emissions
The White House has released more details about the manufacturing efficiency incentives that President Obama announced in his State of the Union address Thursday. The proposed $5 billion in incentives aren’t new, but – if passed by Congress – are an extension to the Recovery Act’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit awarding a ... Read more »
Policy & Enforcement Briefing: Calif. Emissions Rules, Bonneville Power, FDA Plans BPA Decision
California’s Air Resources Board proposed new rules to reduce emissions from vehicles, including putting 1.4 million electric, plug-in and hydrogen cars on the state’s roads by 2025. The program, scheduled for review by the ARB at a Jan. 26 meeting would save an estimated $22 billion in fuel costs, and ... Read more »
COP17: The Challenges, Outcomes and Sustainable Recruitment Trends
Director of Climate Change and Sustainability Services at KPMG, Neil Morris, believes COP17 has greater potential to have practical outcomes than COP15 and COP16 combined. The seventeenth Conference of Parties (COP17) is taking place in Durban from 28 November – 9 December 2011; it is being deemed one of the ... Read more »
Policy & Enforcement Briefing: Ethanol Cuts, South Africa Carbon Fines, Cuba Offshore Drilling
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) introduced an amendment to the chamber’s 2012 agriculture appropriations bill on Tuesday that would block the government from funding gas station “blender” pumps that produce an ethanol fuel mixture, Reuters reported. In addition, the corn ethanol industry and oil companies already will likely lose $6 billion ... Read more »