The world is at crossroads. Global warming and biodiversity loss is increasing by the hour. Wars are raging while the planet is burning. There’s no way to deny the obvious. Or the looming doom at the horizon. It’s easy to lose hope. It’s hard to find the needed daily energy to fight for a better world. But hope is not dead and there are positive developments which show that not everything is lost yet and that the fight is worth fighting. Andy Gheorghiu outlines in this blog his vision for a fossil free KAZA region in sub-Saharan Africa and explains why it could develop into a global lighthouse project for a better world. Read More
All posts tagged: Namibia
The hype around Hyphen – path towards Namibia’s energy revolution or Global North dependency?
In his two parts blog series on “green hydrogen” (GH2), Andy Gheorghiu asked the question if it’s solution of pipe dream – outlining the decarbonisation challenge of the Global North’s energy-/feedstock intensive industry while showing that mainly the Global South has the potential to actually produce large amounts of GH2. In this blog, he draws our attention to Hyphen, one of the largest African hydrogen (H2) projects, in Namibia – highlighting significant open questions and explaining why local opposition is mounting. Read More
Turning Windhoek’s township into a transformative Namibian social and energy powerhouse
In June 2023, Andy Gheorghiu, a German-based and internationally operating campaigner and consultant for climate/environmental protection and energy policy, travelled to Namibia, where he met members of the local Economic and Social Justice Trust in the capital Windhoek. While visiting the township of Katutura, he witnessed the harsh economic reality of a post-apartheid democracy but also identified its huge transformative potential.
Threatening Africa’s Eden – Oil and gas plans loom over the world’s largest nature conservation area
Environmental disasters and global warming severely threaten global biodiversity. Few wild places can boast diverse ecosystems that are largely intact. One such area – Kavango Zambezi Transfontier Conservation Area (KAZA) – is being threatened by plans by the oil and gas industry. Andy Gheorghiu reports on the fight to prevent oil and gas extraction in Southern Africa that is threatening our planet’s largest nature protection zone.
Shock at oil-gas prospecting plans for Okavango Delta and Kgalagadi
The window of opportunity to keep the average global temperature from breaking through the ceiling of 2°C — or preferably 1.5°C — as set out in the UN’s Paris Agreement is closing fast. But for parts of the Kalahari, a vast semi-desert in southern Africa, the battle to stabilise the regional temperature is already lost. Botswana is expected to reach an average warming of 2°C in less than five years. At a time when the science warns that countries need to keep their fossil fuels in the ground, conservationists here have expressed alarm at the news that oil and gas prospecting licenses have been issued for large parts of Botswana and Namibia, including in the ecologically and water-sensitive Okavango Delta and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Leonie Joubert reports