Tuesday January 31, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

State-owned power utility Eskom has reiterated its call for South Africans to urgently reduce electricity demand by 10%, or some 3 000 MW, adding that it is continuing to pursue plans to ensure that the energy conservation scheme be made mandatory so as to improve savings certainty and enable it to ramp up planned maintenance. Providing a power system update in Johannesburg yesterday, CEO Brian Dames said the system would remain constrained for the coming five years, while the maintenance backlog had become unsustainable. Savings were, therefore, needed to create "space" for the utility to implement its proactive maintenance schedule across all of its 58 units.

The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to three-billion people into poverty, a UN report warned. As the world's population looks set to grow to nearly nine-billion by 2040 from seven-billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by three-billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially. Even by 2030, the world will need at least 50% more food, 45% more energy and 30% more water, according to UN estimates, at a time when a changing environment is creating new limits to supply.

A civilian council that advises Egypt's ruling army will consider a proposal to hold a Presidential election earlier than a June deadline, council members said, a move that could speed up the transition of power to civilians. Egypt's generals, who took over from ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February last year, have faced renewed street protests demanding they hand power to civilians sooner than the June deadline they set themselves. The body, which includes a number of influential politicians, can only advise the army and has no power to change the election timetable itself.

Also making headlines:

The African Union extended the mandate of its commission chief after failing to elect a new head yesterday, highlighting the weakness of a group criticised for slow decision-making during political turmoil on the continent last year.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.