Author: Mark McTaggart

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) remains in a moderate El Niño state and the forecast indicates that it will remain in at least a weak El Niño state throughout early- and mid-summer. Caution is advised however, as ENSO forecasts are less skilful during the winter and spring periods. There is an indication of above-normal rainfall…

Environmental activists are dragging the government to court over its alleged poor progress in cleaning up air pollution in the Mpumalanga highveld. GroundWork and the Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action, represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights, have launched a landmark case to demand that the government clean up the air in the highly…

Highly dependent on fossil fuels and ranked 114 by World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index, the country is only better than Haiti The dominance of coal as the major source of electrical energy supply has meant SA is very far behind in terms of environmentally sustainable energy generation, worse than even Venezuela Read more: Business…

Due to the exceptionally rugged terrain created by the Blyde River Canyon and the Mpumalanga Escarpment, significant alien plant invasions on several isolated mountain tops had remained untreated for several decades. The High Altitude Teams (HAT) working in the area had recognised this problem for some time, but struggled to secure funding for helicopter transport…

South Africa has placed the right to sufficient water as a Constitutional right in its Bill of Rights. But what does that mean? It places a legal obligation on the government to ensure that all people living in South Africa have the right to sufficient water. The Constitution does not say very much about the…

As part of the consultation on its LEDS, the Department of Environmental Affairs, in partnership with the 2050 Pathways Platform will be hosting a workshop on the 6th and 7th March 2019. As preparation for this workshop Project 90 by 2030 and ACRP are hosting a meeting to discuss a CSO position. Please see details below. Date: 28 February…

Transvaal Gold Mining Estates (TGME, under Stonewall Mining) has applied for an amendment to its existing mining right 83MR (originally granted in 2013) in the Pilgrims Rest area of the upper Blyde Catchment from its current form of underground mining to opencast mining (contour haul back mining). In conjunction with this it has also applied…

Malick Diagne is the head of GeoRisk Afric, a company founded in March 2016. He attended training sessions on drone usage for precision agriculture organised by CTA and the French company, Parrot, as part of the “Eyes in the Sky” project. In this blog, using his 12 years’ experience in environmental and natural resource management,…

South Africans dispose of enough municipal solid waste to fill an entire football field 10 metres deep, every day. Every single person of our total population of 57 million generates up to 2,5 kilograms of waste per day, on average, depending on his or her level of income. The disposal of such waste at properly…

The past year brought about several precedent setting court decisions and a growing number of lawsuits seeking to tackle climate change. In May, the Supreme Court of Colombia ruled in favour of a group of 25 children and youth, holding that their constitutional right to a healthy environment was being violated by deforestation in the…