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COP 16 COLOMBIA - Nature and Culture Summit 2024

The Nature and Culture Summit 2024 was one of the major parallel events held during the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16) on October 27. Celebrating its fifth edition and taking place almost a year after the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP 15 in December 2022, the Summit provided a unique opportunity to develop key messages on the intrinsic relationship of biocultural diversity in the context of the implementation of the Framework. Our very own Professor Laura Pereira was part of the panelists, contributing her expertise to the discussions.

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Photos, from left: Felix Dlangamandla, Mark Andrews)

What happened to the Just Energy Transition grant funding?

The government released two key documents for the Just Energy Transition in South Africa. The first was the Just Energy Transition Implementation Plan, the roadmap for achieving decarbonisation of the economy in a just manner. The Implementation Plan covers six portfolios: Electricity; Mpumalanga Just Transition; New Energy Vehicles (NEVs); Green Hydrogen; Skills; and Municipalities and it has incorporated some of the comments received during the consultation process on the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan. Article by: Katrina Lehmann-Grube, Imraan Valodia & Julia Taylor

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OUR PLEDGE

Wits commits to playing a transformative leadership role in South Africa's response to the climate emergency. Through research, teaching, policy engagement and its own practice, using its location in the economic hub of the country, and understanding its history in mining and industry, Wits will play a pivotal role in a just and equitable transition to a net zero-carbon economy for the city, region, country, continent and the world, by 2050. At the center of this commitment will be ongoing analyses of our own carbon footprint, with a view to transforming the university into a living laboratory for just practices of sustainability.

Wits Pro VC: Climate, Sustainability and Inequality Seminars

This talk was hosted by the Wits Pro Vice Chancellor for Climate, Sustainability and Inequality, Professor Imraan Valodia, on 1 August 2024. Sunlight outstrips fossil fuels by a factor of ten thousand. As a daily, never-ending resource, wind also vastly exceeds oil, coal, and methane. Proponents of renewable energy have yet to grapple with this abundance. Capitalists and socialists alike have become stuck in a trap of scarcity.

In the 6th Assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that a 1.1°C global-scale warming has been recorded relative to pre-industrial conditions. In the past year, mean global temperatures have exceeded 1.5°C above post industrial levels. These numbers are very significant to climate scientists and activists but are difficult to tangibly imagine.

Wits Pro VC Seminar: Implementing the Climate Change Bill: South Africa’s Carbon Budget and Mitigation Plans by Jongikhaya Witi, Chief Director: Climate Change Mitigation and Specialist Monitoring Services at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

A panel discussion on ‘African Science for the African Position,’ where Laura Pereira, associate professor at the Global Change Institute at Wits University in Johannesburg and researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, emphasised that “the role of science from Africa but also across the global South to feed into the negotiating positions is overlooked”.

The JET P, JET IP and Implementation Plan in South Africa: Implications for inequality and workers” hosted by the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits University and COSATU at COP28 in Dubai.

Wits Pro VC Seminar | The Ethical Challenges of Climate Advocacy and Science by Prof Sally Archibald

Wits Pro VC Seminar | Opportunities for litigating claims for climate loss and damage in Africa

 



Wits University, as one of the leading universities, is committed to promoting sustainability in its operations, teaching and learning, research – with the support of its students, staff and stakeholders.

The campaign, Save Our Resources. #ForGood is part of ongoing efforts to rally the Wits community to act with care, through small and big actions, as individuals and as a collective. Read more.