KATHU, South Africa, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Life is about
to get a lot better for people like Christopher Mocwane, a
worker at one of the world’s largest iron ore mines outside this
dusty town in the middle of the Kalahari desert.

Thanks to an employee share ownership scheme, the
47-year-old, who earns 7,000 rand ($835) a month, is about to
receive a 576,045-rand ($68,700) windfall.

DURBAN (Reuters) – When Pablo Suarez began teaching farmers, fishermen and emergency volunteers about rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns using scientists and a powerpoint presentation, people were falling asleep in their chairs.

Eventually he decided on a very different approach.

“I had to convey the idea of a storm, of an extreme weather event, and I had a Frisbee and I just threw it into the audience,” Suarez, a Red Cross associate director of programs, told Reuters on the sidelines of a global climate summit.

DURBAN (Reuters) – Rich nations are on track to deliver on their promise to supply $30 billion in short-term climate financing by the end of next year to help poor countries tackle global warming.

But doubts emerged at the climate talks in Durban this week over whether donors will be able to ramp-up support to $100 billion a year by 2020 as part of a long-term fund to assist developing nations in their fight against climate change.

DURBAN (Reuters) – The European Union said on Wednesday countries should agree to the draft of a new climate fund and not delay its progress, while others urged more work on a tool meant to help developing countries fight climate change.

More than 190 countries at the global climate talks in Durban are expected to sign off on the Green Climate Fund, meant to channel up to $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing states tackle climate change that is leading to rising sea levels and crop failures.

DURBAN (Reuters) – Small island states may disappear under rising seas if an international agreement to tackle climate change is delayed for another decade, an official said on Monday.

The European Union is calling for a global deal to be reached by 2015 and implemented by 2020, but the 43-member Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) said that would be too late to reverse rising sea levels that threaten to submerge the vulnerable states.

DURBAN (Reuters) – The world needs a far more ambitious plan to cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases than the Kyoto Protocol, European Union climate negotiators said on Monday, calling for a global deal to be reached by 2015 and in place by 2020.

Time is running out to save the Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding emissions cuts for most major economies and is designed to reduce the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, increasingly extreme weather and crop failure.

DURBAN (Reuters) – Almost 200 nations began global climate talks on Monday with time running out to save the Kyoto Protocol aimed at cutting the greenhouse gas emissions scientists blame for rising sea levels, intense storms, drought and crop failures.

Countries have been at loggerheads for years and hopes are slim of any major progress, despite increasingly dire warnings from climate scientists. Diplomats also wonder whether host South Africa is up to the challenge of brokering the tough negotiations that run until December 9 in Durban.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom wants to greatly expand its grid beyond its borders, bringing energy security to fast emerging southern Africa by building lines and plants and tapping the region’s vast green energy sources.

But first, it must take care of problems at home that include building new power stations for Africa’s largest economy and reducing its carbon footprint by ending an almost exclusive reliance on coal, its CEO Brian Dames said on Friday.

MAPUTO (Reuters) – The board of Brazil’s Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has approved a $6 billion expansion of its Moatize coal project in Mozambique to lift output to 22 million tons per year from the 11 million tons it expects to mine initially, a company official said.

Marcelo Matos, general manager for marketing and sales at Vale’s coal unit, told a coal conference in Maputo on Tuesday that first production from the expanded mine is forecast for the second half of 2014.

MAPUTO, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Mozambique is “happy” with
the strength of the metical, the world’s best-performing
currency this year against the dollar, and has no plans at the
moment to weaken it, Finance Minister Manuel Chang said on
Tuesday.

Chang also told Reuters the war-scarred southern African
nation was considering launching a debut international bond to
fund an ambitious infrastructure programme, although external
conditions were not favourable at the moment.