June 2011 Blog Posts (11)

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African efforts on climate action received a welcome boost today with approval of a ground-breaking renewable energy project in Morocco that should be a game-changer for solar power at large-scale.

 

The 125 megawatt concentrated solar power plant at Ouarzazate is the first project in a regional plan that will eventually triple today’s global investments in concentrated solar power. The regional plan is funded to the tune of $200 million in Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and…

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Work is underway on building one of Africa's greenest buildings as Vodacom and its parent company Vodafone, plan an alternative energy innovation centre to help reduce carbon emissions across the world. 

Once completed, the Midrand based innovation centre will house a team of experts tasked with developing energy efficient technology to counter some of South Africa's, and the planet's greatest environmental challenges.

In emerging markets, diesel generators are often used to…

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Cookswell energy saving charcoal ovens.

 

www.kenyacharcoal.blogspot.com

Norway will provide an additional NOK 30 million to Côte d’Ivoire. The money will be used for reconstruction and reconciliation efforts. The aim is to help to stabilise the situation in the country.

 

Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim visited Côte d’Ivoire this week to help to consolidate the peace that has been achieved and to support the ongoing reconciliation efforts. His programme included a visit to Duékoué in the western part of the…

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The dichotomy between statistics on Africa´s economic growth and realities on the ground has emerged as a key talking point in discussions ahead of the 2011 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, whose central theme is: “Toward an Agenda for Inclusive Growth in Africa”.

 

“Africans are no longer interested in impressive statistics that do not reflect realities on the ground,” AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka,  said at a breakfast meeting with media…

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A new IFC-World Bank report released today finds that if governments actively engage with the private sector in health, the pace of meeting health goals in Sub-Saharan Africa could be accelerated.  By leveraging the “power of two,” referring to the public and private sectors, health services can be expanded and the financial burden on governments eased.

 

This innovative report, entitled Healthy Partnerships: How Governments Can Engage the Private Sector to Improve Health in…

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An additional 1.2 million Malawians are set to have improved access to sustainable water supply and sanitation services by 2015, courtesy of US$120million financial support from the World Bank. This will increase the number of Malawians benefiting from new or improved water supply and sanitation services through the National Water Development Program from one million in 2010 to 2.2 million in 2015.

 

The funds approved by the World Bank Board today, consist of a $95 million…

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Energy and fuel use are important for the welfare of households in Africa. Modern fuels play a relatively modest role in rural areas of much low income countries. The prospect for modern fuels to combat indoor air pollution is therefore significantly better in urban than in rural areas. We should note also that fuel and electricity pricing is politically sensitive and important for poverty.

In the poorest countries, biomass and kerosene often feature heavily. In Ghana, kerosene…

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Frankenstein you create will ‘haunt you sooner or later’



By Chidi Emmanuel

From Vietnam to Afghanistan, as years go by, the West still doesn’t get it: ‘The Frankenstein you created will come back to haunt you sooner or later.’ The Mujahedeen and Taleban were armed in Afghanistan to fight off the Soviet forces in earlier wars, but have since turned those arms and expertise against those who armed them (US). In Vietnam it was a similar story.

UN Resolution 1973 only… Continue