climate smart cape townThe award-winning Climate Smart Cape Town Pavilion at COP17 in Durban was the venue for the launch of ‘Moving Mountains, Cape Town’s Action Plan for Energy and Climate Change’.

The City of Cape Town’s Energy and Climate Action Plan has 11 objectives, with targets and detailed implementation plans involving over 40 programmes and more than 120 projects. The Action Plan is managed and coordinated by the City’s Environmental Resource Management Department, across all Directorates and Departments.

Speaking at the launch on Friday 2 December 2011, Councillor Gareth Bloor, Chair of the City’s Economic, Environmental and Spatial Planning Portfolio Committee stated that the City of Cape Town acknowledges climate change as one of the greatest challenges of our generation and seeks to use it as an opportunity to build

The world’s poorest people are on the frontlines of climate change, with everything to lose and little to cushion the blow of its far-reaching impacts. A new position paper by the Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network illustrates how empowering local communities to pursue sustainable livelihoods while managing their natural resources can contribute to better adaptation in the face of climate change.

The paper, titled Integrating Community and Ecosystem-based Approaches in Climate Change Adaptation Responses, is part of a partnership that includes IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), CARE International, the International Institute for Environment and Development and WWF (World Wildlife Fund). It asserts that integrating approaches to

Philips LED street lighting
New street lighting in Durban represents good luminance and uniformity in LED lighting; will create a more livable city with safer roads, increased security and a comfortable outdoor environment.

Yesterday Philips unveiled a new state of the art LED street lighting installation that offers a sustainable lighting solution for the citizens of Durban. The new lighting consists of 149 LED street lights installed in 6 streets around the Durban International Conference Center (ICC). These offer energy savings of 47,4 MWh per year or 26% compared with the older 250W metal halide street lights they replace and at the same time provide

HSI

The Humane Society International is pressing policymakers to address animal agriculture’s role in global warming during the UN conferences in Durban.

COP17, the United Nations’ climate change conference, opened this week with hopes for a global agreement that will stave off the most dangerous impacts of climate change.

Given animal agriculture’s significant contributions to the climate crisis (see this report), the Humane Society International believes that conference outcomes should include policies to reduce the animal agriculture sector’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Zolani Mahola: Freshlyground "Taking a stand" for COP17. Are you?COP17 "Take a stand" with Freshlyground

Together we can create more awareness in order to drive a unified solution to Climate Change. Freshlyground have re-written the lyrics to their hit song "Doo Be Doo" especially for COP 17. Please share this new version of "Doo Be Doo - Take a Stand" across the country.

Blog about it, like it, tweet it, embed it, burn it, copy it, tell your local Radio station…. or just sing it! See below links to the new version.

1. Download the Song - FREE!

2. Download the Ringtone

3. Watch the Video

It’s easy to do knowing we all have the right to Take a Stand for free!

Zolani Mahola, lead singer of Freshlyground, and Leigh Wood, Producer of the youth program “It’s Up to US” on 50/50, co-wrote a new

Earthlife March

March to Demand a Solution to Climate Change at COP17 is being hosted this Saturday, 26th November, by Earthlife Africa Jhb

Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising to dangerous levels and if a global deal to reduce emissions to 1.5 degrees Celsius is not reached soon, Africa will face droughts, submerged cities and coastlines, famines, species extinctions and many climate refugees.

With the Kyoto Protocol coming to an end in 2012, global leaders need to reach a just, fair and legally binding agreement that continues to keep emissions in check.

For this reason, Earthlife Africa Jhb and allies will be marching on Saturday, 26th of November 2011.

As Makoma Lekalakala, Programme Officer at Earthlife Africa Jhb states, "The world is coming to South Africa and the only question is will there be only hot air, or will a deal be reached? We, in South Africa, need a deal. Runaway climate change, or even warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius, will undermine all of our development gains made since liberation. We are

Ankole Coffee Producers Cooperative Union Ltd, Bushenyi, Urganda: Pic by Nathalie Bertrams

Climate change has wiped out nearly half of the 10 million coffee trees the members of the Fairtrade Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union have planted since 2003.

Mzuzu Coffee represents 3,500 small holder coffee producers in Malawi’s mountainous northern region whose hopes rest on COP17 delivering policies that can help them in the face of climate change.

With a week left to COP17 in Durban, South Africa, a critical element of the discussions in Durban must be around financing adaptation. Outcomes of the talks must provide sufficient support to tackle the adaptation needs of farmers in developing countries who have done very little to cause climate change yet are vulnerable to its effects. Fairtrade farmers are

Flying Rhinos from Green Renaissance on Vimeo.

The seventh black rhino population established by the WWF Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, was recently released after an epic 1500 kilometre trip across the country. 19 of the critically endangered animals were moved from the Eastern Cape to a new location in Limpopo province.

Let Us Grow, A Your Street CT WinnerLast week the Your Street seven finalists were invited to present their proposals on how to enhance an aspect of city life using design to the jury that included representatives from Design Indaba, the local design sector as well as from the City of Cape Town.

Here are the four winners of the Your Street Cape Town Challenge, sharing between them R250 000 to implement their proposals.

Acre Road, Kensington: A community-based design solution to improve the lives of the Acre Road community using low-cost facilities to cater for positive community activities. R100 000: Lorena Pasquini, Caitlynne Francis, Mark Henning and Hannah Williams.

Violet’s Walk: A clearly marked

G20 Summit protesters in Nice as Fortress Cannes locked down.In from the Avaaz team:

It's unbelievable. The G20 -- the most powerful summit of world governments -- meets tomorrow to discuss the global economic crisis, and who is sponsoring the meeting? Banks and corporations!

No wonder the site of the meeting -- the French city of Cannes -- is completely locked down to any ordinary citizens, while banks and large corporate CEOs have all access passes to tell our governments what to do.