AGRI NEWS NET

South Africa is currently in the grip of its worst-ever power cuts, while coal exports fell to a 30-year low in 2022 because of the poor performance of the national freight rail company. That, coupled with poor water infrastructure and inefficient ports, is stifling investment.

Agriculture Healines of the week.

The World Bank has been tracking carbon markets for around two decades and the annual State and Trends of Carbon Pricing report is now in its tenth year. When the first report was published a decade ago, only 7% of global emissions were covered by either a carbon tax or an ETS. Today, as highlighted in the 2023 report, almost a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions (23%) are now covered by 73 instruments. 

South Africa’s central bank has warned of dire consequences should the country face censure due to its stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.At worst, secondary, or indirect sanctions could be imposed on the country and lead to a sudden halt to capital inflows and increased outflows, the bank said in its latest financial stability review published on Monday. It cautioned that South Africa’s financial system would be unable to function if its ability to make international payments in dollars was impeded.

Climate change-driven shifts in the circulation of waters to the deepest reaches of the ocean around Antarctica, which could reverberate across the planet and intensify global warming, are happening decades "ahead of schedule", according to new research.

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The government of South Africa is weighing new anti-dumping tariffs of up to 232% on a range of products imported from China and India, ostensibly to protect local industry. Bad plan. The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC), a bunch of pencil-pushers tasked with second-guessing the ‘proper’ pricing of imports, has asked Ebrahim Patel, the communist in charge of the Department of Trade Barriers, Deindustrialisation and Collusion (DTIC), to impose ‘anti-dumping’ tariffs on a number of products imported from China and India. 

Natural gas might be the same commodity everywhere in the world, but prices can vary dramatically because of the complex network of infrastructure needed to transport it.

“The chance of global near-surface temperature exceeding 1.5°C above preindustrial levels for at least one year between 2023 and 2027 is more likely than not (66%).”