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Climate scenarios and models play a major role in shaping international policy.

Climate models failing to reflect inequality and Global South realities, study warns

Scientists say dominant climate and biodiversity models rely too heavily on existing economic systems and overlook inequality, Global South perspectives and Indigenous knowledge,…

Africa’s floods and droughts are messing with our minds. Researchers are trying to figure out how

As climate change intensifies, experts say our health and healthcare systems are going to suffer. But mental health often takes a back seat

Africa is on the front lines of climate change. It has been a largely rural continent, but 60% of its population will be living in cities by 2050. Photo: Getty Images.

Cities are key to tackling climate change

Populations, resources, power and consumption are centred in cities, and this affects rural areas

Global greenhouse-gas emissions should have their numbers dwindle if we remain faithful to emerging technologies. Photo: Supplied

‘The window to limit global warming is rapidly closing’

Global panel’s new report says we are hurtling toward disaster but there are ways to avoid it

Debra Roberts is the acting head of the sustainable and resilient city initiatives unit at the eThekwini municipality and its chief resilience officer. She is also a co-chair of the Working Group II of the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body responsible for climate science. (YANN COATSALIOU / AFP)

Durban’s Debra Roberts: first African woman to be elected IPCC Co-Chair

eThekwini’s chief resilience officer says the city is the ‘ideal test tube’ because it’s a microcosm of the world’s climate change problems

A United Nation report says it’s still possible to restrict warming to below 1.5°C, but this requires substantial, sector-wide effort immediately. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It’s ‘now or never’ to avoid worst effects of climate change

A United Nation report says it’s still possible to restrict warming to below 1.5°C, but this requires substantial, sector-wide effort immediately

File photo by Rodger Bosch / AFP

South African cities must put green infrastructure firmly on the urban agenda

A green investment increases resilience and adapts cities to the harmful effects of climate change — and increases property prices and addresses issues such as health, water,…

El Niño is expected to cause a loss of rainfall

Adaptation should be central to climate crisis talks. Here’s why

Calls intensify to focus on helping high-risk communities adjust to climate change

Safety valves: Ecosystems such as the fynbos of the Western Cape absorb and slow down water and channel the runoff into streams and rivers. (Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

‘The future is closer than expected’

Restoring ecosystems — wetlands, savannahs and grasslands — will mitigate the effects of global warming

Limiting greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience can improve the everyday lives and experiences of South Africans. (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Parties divided on carbon trading system as UN climate talks end

One country pays for greenhouse gas emissions in another country and uses that credit for its own emission reduction targets — but accounting irregularities increased carbon…

Despite the country’s globally significant biodiversity, ecosystems across terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine and marine environments are under escalating pressure.

Tackle climate change and biodiversity loss together, not separately, scientists say

Some climate adaptation and mitigation projects end up harming the natural environment and people, a new report warns

Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo teams collecting trees for planting

South Africa’s potential to expand tree cover as a climate mitigation tool

Should Africa’s largest emitter rely on tree planting initiatives to mitigate?

(John McCann/M&G)

Covid puts green energy in a coma

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted governments’ plans to flatline the upward trajectory of global warming

The research found that, on April 7, daily global carbon emissions dropped 17%. This is the day when the most countries and the most number of people were under some sort of a lockdown.  (Reuters)

Covid-19 brings South Africa’s daily carbon emissions down by 20%

With the nearly two-month grinding the economy to a halt as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown, carbon emissions globally have dropped to 2006 levels