Category: ENVIRONMENT

AFRY is the technical partner in a new waste-to-energy project in Thailand

Watsuduphan Thurakit Co. Ltd. (WSPT) has awarded AFRY with Owner’s Engineering services for a waste-to-energy facility in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. This project contributes to the development of an improved municipal waste management system in the country. Waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities have become an important method for disposal of municipal solid waste around the world. The new plant will transform municipal waste into energy, thereby aligning with and contributing to Thailand’s sustainability pathway. The project, commonly known as WSPT 9.9 MW Nakorn Pathom WtE, will consist of the construction of a plant…

Africa and the Energy Transition: The Nuances, Challenges and Prospects(By Mohammed A.Abu)

Introduction The issue of global warming exacerbated by climate change impact drives the global call for transitioning from fossil fuels energy sources to renewables. The Agreement of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COPs 28) held last year in the Dubai Emirate of the United Arab Emirates(UAE) recommended “transitioning away from fossil fuels” that is, gradual rather that immediate phase out as was expected by some parties. Whereas some countries mostly from the global North relatively are transition ready, others with particular reference to oil and gas resources rich African…

African Development Bank expands urban support program to six new cities

TUNIS, Tunisia, June 26, 2024/ — The African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) (https://apo-opa.co/4exYmAh) has expanded its African Cities Program to cover six new cities across the continent. The expansion, approved by the Fund’s 13th Oversight Committee, will help bolster urban development and address critical challenges faced by rapidly growing African cities. The newly included cities are: Kolwezi, the Democratic Republic of Congo: mining town grappling with rapid urban growth and environmental issues. Grand Nokoué, Benin: an economic hub with over two million inhabitants. Buffalo City, South Africa:…

Canon enters recycling system business with innovative technology, promoting circular economy with high-speed, accurate plastic sorting equipment capable of measuring even black plastic waste

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, June 26, 2024/ — Canon Inc. (https://en.Canon-CNA.com/) announced today that it will launch new plastic sorting equipment with innovative material identification technology. The equipment applies Raman spectroscopy technology to moving objects with a tracking mechanism to collectively detect the material types of plastic fragments with high accuracy, even when black plastic pieces are mixed with other colors, which has been conventionally challenging. Today, the company will begin widely accepting orders from the market for the “TR Series” which includes the “TR-S1510.” Currently, roughly 20%[1] of plastic waste generated in…

14th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention:

Science every day identifies more hazardous constituents in waste. Recycling operations are also changing as new ways are found to recover valuable content from waste. These changes raise new questions for parties to the one of the oldest multilateral environmental agreements, the Basel Convention, as to how the waste trade can be better monitored and regulated. The Fourteenth Meeting of the Basel Convention’s Open-ended Working Group (OEWG-14) is the only occasion for all parties to meet face-to-face before the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties, COP 17, takes place…

67th Meeting of the GEF Council: momentum for people and the planet

The 67th meeting of the GEF Council, the 36th meeting of the Least Developed Countries Fund/Special Climate Change Fund (LDCF/SCCF) Council, and the 2nd meeting of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) Council collectively adopted work programs totaling USD 736.42 million. The work programs will seek to bring global environmental benefits through activities addressing biodiversity loss, chemicals and waste pollution, land degradation, climate change, and international waters. Among other projects and programs, funding was approved for a Great Green Wall program established between the LDCF and GEF Trust Funds, a…

SPP, DCC Unveil Initiative To Rate, Rank Nigerian States’ Climate Governance Performance

The Society for Planet and Prosperity (SPP), in close collaboration with the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment in Abuja, has announced plans to officially launch the rating and ranking of the climate governance performance of Nigeria’s 36 states in July 2024. The statement was made on Thursday, June 13, 2024, at the inaugural coordination meeting of climate change desk officers from Nigerian states, which was convened by the DCC. SPP President, Prof Chukwumerije Okereke, while presenting the state of play of the rating and…

Energy for Growth in Africa Initiative Unveiled

By.Mohammed A.Abu The decades long delay in fulfilment of pledges made by the Global South towards  climate change impact funding  in the Global North hasn’t helped the course of the global transition from fossil fuels derived energy to renewable energy as global warming and climate change impact bites deeper. Indeed, lack of external affordable funding for renewable energy projects in both the public and private sectors of countries in the Global South with particular reference to Africa, the world’s most energy poor continent, has since given rise to the legitimate…

G7 Pledges to Accelerate SDGs, Transition from Fossil Fuels This Decade

The Group of 7 (G7) leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, with the EU, have wrapped up a three-day summit, united in their “steadfast commitment” to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They pledged to redouble their efforts to accelerate progress towards the SDGs, including by transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in this decade. The G7 Leaders’ Summit took place in Apulia, Italy, from 13-15 June 2024. The 36-page Apulia G7 Leaders’ Communiqué reiterates the Group’s “enduring unity and determination…

World’s oldest termite mounds discovered in South Africa – and they’ve been storing precious carbon for thousands of years

First Published June,16,The Conversation The landscape along the Buffels River in South Africa’s Namaqualand region is dotted with thousands of sandy mounds that occupy about 20% of the surface area. These heuweltjies, as the locals call them (the word means “little hills” in Afrikaans), are termite mounds, inhabited by an underground network of tunnels and nests of the southern harvester termite, Microhodotermes viator. I’m part of a group of earth scientists who, in 2021, set out to study why the groundwater in the area, around 530km from Cape Town, is saline. The groundwater salinity seemed…