AFRICA: African cities are encouraged to emulate Cape Town’s response strategy to climate change. Though the climate change strategy in Cape Town is not perfect, other African cities have a lot to learn. Africa’s economic malaise and vulnerability to heat, drought and floods make it the most likely continent to be impacted by climate change. Despite its vulnerability and inadequacy in combating climate change, only 13 cities in Africa are committed to taking measurable changes against climate change while only five in South Africa have climate change strategies. Cape Town has become the latest city to redraft its climate change strategy which contains 35 goals, aimed towards adaptation and mitigation. However, a major drawback is the omission of nature’s role in their proposed climate action, making the strategy self-defeating.
ASIA: Environmental health scientists are calling for a One Health approach to climate and disease crises. Recent studies have shown that the outbreak of diseases is due to human encroachment of the natural habitats of wild animals. Jatna Supriatna, a conservation biologist in the University of Indonesia, speaking in support of the One Health approach said, “Integrated prevention and mitigation measures were vital to outbreaks resulting from zoonotic pathogens.” The primary causes of these outbreaks, according to Jatna were deforestation and forest conversion. Deforestation has driven wild animals away from their natural habits to live in proximity with human established settlements. Also Sofia Mubarika of Yogkarta-based Gadjah Mada University suggested that Indonesia should reinforce the One Health approach in order to “address overlapping issues of ecological stability and public health”
COVID-19: German Biotech Company, BioNTech and United States pharmaceuticals, Pfizer have announced a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. However, these early results are known as “interim analysis” and we await the data to undergo “peer-review” through scientific publication. In an analysis carried out on 94 volunteers with COVID-19, the vaccine was suggested to have an efficacy of over 90%. This means that one out of ten people, prone to have COVID-19 will be infected with the disease when the vaccine is administered. The success rate of this vaccine is astounding because the US Food and Drug Administration have announced that they will only approve of a 50% efficacy rating. This latest development has encouraged more vaccines that work better in certain demography to be tested.
RENEWABLE ENERGY: Green hydrogen could be the latest innovation in the energy industry. Although hydrogen has been flaunted as a carbon-free fuel source, its traditional production process is not remotely zero carbon. In this process of production, fossil fuels are exposed to steam, and this is called gray hydrogen. If the CO2 is captured and sequestered, it is known as blue hydrogen. However, green hydrogen is an exception, produced from the process of electrolysis where hydrogen and oxygen are split without any by-product. Companies are currently working to produce electrolyzers that will produce green hydrogen as cheaply as blue and gray hydrogen.