It’s been a bad day for Canada at the COP17 yesterday – since it’s been awarded the first Fossil of the Day Award in Durban. The Climate Action Network, a worldwide network of roughly 500 Non-Governmental Organizations, said there were credible reports saying that before the end of the year, Canada is going to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Canada even won second place following statements by their environment minister, who said, that Canada came to Durban “to play hardball” with the developing countries. The 3rd place fossil of the day had been awarded to the UK, following revelations “that UK ministers have done a deal with the Canadian government to support the entry of tar sand into the European fuel supply chain”.
The Fossil of the Day award were first presented at the climate talks in 1999 in Berlin, initiated by the German NGO Forum.

As South Africa prepares for the upcoming climate talks in Durban, the country is also trying to improve its own climate profile by making South Africa a more environmentally-friendly place. And Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the country’s minister of international relations, says women will need to lead the way.

It’s not the first time women have been described as the key to fighting climate change – and other global issues, for that matter. The UN says women make up the biggest share of the poor across the world. And it’s most often women who are dependent on natural resources to find food, water and energy to take care of their families. So naturally, they end up taking the brunt of the effects of climate change, which makes it harder to get those resources.

Yet women in many parts of the world have little power to effect social, political or economic change. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane says we need to empower the world’s women to make those changes, by giving them the support needed to cope with climate change and listening to their voices. And she says any climate agreement has to take women into account.

South Africa is ramping up its green energy production in a big way. The cabinet approved a new 20-year energy plan that would make renewable and nuclear energy the focus going into the future. Right now, South Africa relies on coal for most of its electricity, but the plan would see the renewable and nuclear energy account for two-thirds of the country's energy in 20 years.

 

But that means South Africa is making a commitment to nuclear power while most countries are moving away from it, especially with the current nuclear crisis in Japan. The plan is still just that–a plan. It has to be approved by parliament and the president has to sign it, too. But what do you think?

 

Could this drastic energy restructuring plan be a step forward for South Africa? Or is investing in nuclear power for the future the wrong choice?