Environment

The World Bank has defended its proposed R29 billion loan to Eskom amid growing criticism from environmental groups and NGOs.

The NGOs, Climate Justice Now, groundWork and the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, have criticised the loan, supported by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the South African Council of Churches.

They say if it is approved, the poor will bear the burden of Eskom debt.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in South Africa has questioned the integrity of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa's (NERSA) public hearings into Eskom's proposed tariff hike.

The WWF says it also questions the intentions behind the energy ministry's publication of a purported Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) on the last day of 2009.

The largest and most important United Nations climate change conference in history is underway in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Conference president, Connie Hedegaard, says the key to an agreement is finding a way to raise and channel public and private financing to poor countries for years to come to help them fight the effects of climate change.

In the same vein, diplomats from 192 nations have warned that this could be the best, last chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming.

The head of the United Nation's Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists has attacked the so-called Climategate affair as a suspected bid to undermine the credibility of his organisation.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), used the opening ceremonies of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen to lash those who had hacked into e-mails among top scientists in Britain assessing global warming.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) will be held from 7-18 December 2009 at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen. 

COP15 - the official title of the conference - refers to the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

South Africa has offered to slow the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent by 2020, conditional on a broader international agreement and financial aid.

In a press statement, the Presidency says that, "This level of effort enables South Africa's emissions to peak between 2020 and 2025, plateau for approximately a decade and decline in absolute terms thereafter."

The country will lower its carbon emissions, largely from burning coal, to 34 percent below expected levels by 2020 and about 42 percent below current trends by 2025.

The United Nations (UN) says the biggest climate talks in history must deliver an ambitious, sweeping agreement to capitalise on pledges by countries to fight global warming.

A day before the two-week talks in the Danish capital formally begin, the UN climate chief, Yvo de Boer, points out that is up to agree on the outlines of a tougher climate deal after troubled negotiations have deepened splits between rich and poor nations.