Saliem Fakir
Fakir is interim executive director of the African Climate Foundation – saliem@africanclimatefoundation.org
Inside the green economy
10th November 2017 It is often assumed that the green economy only relates to a specific type of technology or shifts in energy demand. The notion of the green... →
New era of disruption
20th October 2017 Perhaps the recent multiple attacks of extreme weather – hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria – do not only tell us that fierce weather is the new... →
Taking the green out of economy
22nd September 2017 There is only one economy, not two. The challenge all societies face today is leaving behind the legacy of an old system. How do we embark on a... →
Enviro rights entail more than just the environment
18th August 2017 It is important to review where we have come from over the past 20 years and how much has been achieved in that time. South Africa's Constitution... →
Decolonising the green economy
4th August 2017 On June 13, a good agent provocateur, former National Planning Commission member Mike Muller, proposed in a panel discussion at a Trade and... →
Is science losing its authority?
16th June 2017 Scientists have, for a long time, been held in high esteem. Yet scientist struggle to effectively mediate evidenced-based outcomes in highly... →
New vision needed for conservation
26th May 2017 A friend of mine, Mark Halle, argues that the world of conservation is going nowhere and that a new vision is needed to take it out of its... →
Political entrepreneurship in the energy sector
5th May 2017 The expediency for rent-seeking that comes with large capital infrastructure projects is always lurking behind the scenes. The extent to which long... →
What can we tell of Eskom’s future from the Denton report?
3rd March 2017 The debate on the independent power producer (IPP) programme can serve as a useful distraction, and power utility Eskom is exploiting it to the... →
Going beyond the Limits to Growth debate
10th February 2017 The Limits to Growth (LTG) thesis was developed in the 1970s by a group of experts collectively called the Club of Rome. They used a computer (at... →
Why the future need not be so bleak
27th January 2017 Sometimes environmental dystopia can obscure progress. As the global climate negotiation process moves along, it is interesting to see how the... →
Climate change in the Donald Trump era
9th December 2016 Donald Trump's Presidency will, no doubt, have a significant impact on the progress on collective action on the climate change front. The US... →
Decolonisation of science – what is it?
11th November 2016 A group of University of Cape Town students organised a panel discussion on the decolonisation of science, which is also another way of saying that... →
Why technological transitions happen
14th October 2016 Sustainability theorists have generally provided broad and abstract descriptors of technoeconomic transitions, as they are focused on drivers that... →
The future is bright for renewables
2nd September 2016 It is hard for people to appreciate the history of renewables if they were not there from the beginning. Renewables started way before the large... →
Can Europe survive without Britain?
5th August 2016 The European project has been long in the making, starting with the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which involved... →
What next for environmentalism?
1st July 2016 This question – What's next for environmentalism? – arose from a reflection piece (which is available on the WWF-SA website) that I wrote for the... →
Realities of modern energy planning
3rd June 2016 Energy technologies involve two realities that influence the way we do our planning: certainty and uncertainty. There is certainty in tried and... →
We need to create a twenty-first century economy
6th May 2016 We are in an interrugnam, as Marxists would say. We are stuck in a nineteenth- or twentieth-century-type economic model that sits in the way of... →
Reconceiving South Africa’s water challenge
4th March 2016 There is water and there is no water. A physical resource may be abundant but it is scarce – through waste, poor pricing, inefficient allocation or... →
Time for tough decisions as rand weakness persists
5th February 2016 Many years back, the rand plummeted, reaching its lowest level against the dollar – close to R25 to the US currency. This was around 2001 and... →
What now after COP 21?
22nd January 2016 The year 2015 will go down in history as the hottest on record. Bizarre weather continues to play itself out in front of our eyes. In the US,... →
Carbon tax – be careful of future trade measures
4th December 2015 The National Treasury has released a draft Carbon Tax Bill and has invited interested parties to submit comments by the middle of this month. There... →
The hybrid generation system is here to stay
6th November 2015 Schumpeter once wrote: "There is certainly no point in trying to conserve obsolescent industries indefinitely; but there is a point in trying to... →
COP 21 and South Africa’s position
9th October 2015 South Africa is fourteenth out of the 20 or so worst emitters of greenhouse gases. Today or historically, we account for between 1% and 2% of... →
The capable State and inclusive economic growth
4th September 2015 The African National Congress's (ANC's) National General Council (NGC) discussion document was released a few weeks ago and makes for an... →
Carbon tax – some pragmatism is needed
7th August 2015 The furore over the carbon tax that is playing itself out in public and behind closed doors is leading to an impasse. From the submissions made to... →
International climate change bargaining disappointing
17th July 2015 Scientific persuasion could not be more compelling than the growing evidence that climate change and variability pose the greatest threat to... →
Delinking from the minerals sector
3rd July 2015 Minerals and energy resources will continue to play an important role in South Africa’s economy. It is what South Africa does that will determine... →
We should stop building big power plants. Period!
5th June 2015 The current crisis at at power utility Eskom is a result of policy decisions made during and after apartheid. Faulty energy paradigms, political... →
Engel’s Curve and the pollution question
3rd April 2015 Pollution remains one of the challenging issues for many emerging economies. They want growth and development before worrying about dealing with... →
New approach to mining needed
13th March 2015 There is a need for a more holistic view of mining than the current compliance mode of governance. By holistic, one means working on the full... →
Renewables-related job creation
30th January 2015 Most jobs in renewables are created during installation. This is not different from constructing a soccer stadium or building the next Carlton... →
What to do about the South African economy
23rd January 2015 Improving the performance of, and labour participation in, the primary sectors of the South African and the manufacturing sector should be... →
Denmark’s green technology export thrust
7th November 2014 I was invited by the Danish Embassy in South Africa to undertake a study tour of the Nordic country with fellow South Africans. There were 12 of us... →
South Africa in the Brics – opportunity or a lost cause?
3rd October 2014 The Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) meeting held in Fortaleza, Brazil, in July, ended with the establishment of the Brics... →
Future urban centres and role of innovative city planning for energy systems
5th September 2014 After a long process of consultation, the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IDUF) has been released for further discussion and debate. The... →
Living wages, living allowances and the platinum strike
18th July 2014 Debates on living wages or minimum wages are not unique to South Africa. You will find similar debates in France, the UK and the US following a... →
Electricity generation and future prices
4th July 2014 Living with an electricity monopoly mandated to provide basic services is always a double-edged sword. If it is well run and efficient, it can be a... →
Four reasons why nuclear is dead beat
30th May 2014 I attended a recent Academy of Science of South Africa (Assaf) conference on nuclear power in Pretoria. It brought to fore the mountain of... →
What should we make of the economics of US shale gas industry?
9th May 2014 There is heightened activity on the shale-gas front. Government is pushing ahead with hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the Department of... →
