Eco Minute 13:30

BULLETIN 25 April 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# Skills have been identified as a key cross-cutting requirement for the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan. This is according to JET Project Management Unit’s Joanne Yawitch. The unit is located in the Presidency. Three just energy transition skills development zones focusing on renewables and grids, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen value chains, are proposed for implementation. Yawitch says the government’s JET-IP outlines the need for 1.5-trillion-rand worth of investment between 2023 and ’27, to support the country’s goal of reducing its carbon emissions.

# Mechanical recycling must remain the preferred method on a large scale, whereas chemical recycling should be used only for hard-to-recycle end-of-life plastics. This is according to the Bureau of International Recycling’s latest position paper on chemical recycling. BIR director general, Arnaud Brunet, says policies should focus on eliminating hard-to-recycle plastics and on encouraging the design of plastics for reuse or mechanical recycling, thus reducing the requirement for new resources.

# And finally: By 2050, 14.5-million people will die due to climate-related factors. This is according to the latest World Economic Forum report, titled Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health. The report also predicts that by 2050, 79-percent of the future world population will experience illness due to the impact of climate change. The report identifies six major climate-driven event categories: floods, droughts, heatwaves, tropical storms, wildfires, and rising sea levels.

Stay tuned for more news………….