Inspiration

Doing development differently: How Kenya is rapidly emerging as Africa’s renewable energy superpower

Rapid Transition Alliance

When William Ruto was sworn in as Kenya’s fifth president in September 2022, he used his inauguration speech to demand an end to humanity’s “addiction to fossil fuels” and reaffirmed Kenya’s commitment to reach 100% clean energy by 2030. Kenya is not far off this target today. In 2021, 81% of Kenya’s electricity generation came from the low carbon sources of geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar power. Over half of this low carbon electricity came from geothermal energy, which Kenya has in abundance. So much in fact, that excess geothermal energy is released during the night when electricity demand is low. Installed geothermal capacity in Kenya could be increased by at least eightfold, which could open opportunities for scaling up green manufacturing capacity or exporting excess electricity to neighbouring countries. Renewable rollouts have substantially improved energy access. In 2013, around 28% of Kenyans had access to electricity. By 2020, this had risen to over 71%. This was achieved as the population grew...

November 29, 2022

What does War in Ukraine Mean for Smallholder Farming?

ARC2020

Ed. note: This article first appeared on ARC2020.eu. ARC2020 is a platform for agri-food and rural actors working towards better food, farming, and rural policies for Europe. While much has been said about the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food markets, little is known about what is happening in Ukraine and how different food producers are coping with the hazards of the war. Natalia Mamonova discusses the impact of the war on Ukraine’s bimodal agrarian structure and what it could mean for small-scale farmers in Ukraine. Ukraine – known as the “breadbasket of the world” – is home to large and small farms that, before the war, were able to coexist side by side for many years. Large farm enterprises specialise in monocrop export-oriented agriculture (predominantly grain and oilseeds) and contribute to a half of the gross domestic agricultural product. The other half is produced by smallholder farms, represented by...

November 29, 2022

The struggle to keep public water services in the public is only just beginning

By Pamela Haines, Waging Nonviolence

As we work for public financing and control, we can join with others around the world who are rejecting the concept of water as a for-profit commodity and organizing to reclaim their access to water as a basic human right.

November 29, 2022

Indigenous and Black Communities Find Common Cause for Land Justice

By PennElys Droz, YES! magazine

Black and Indigenous communities increasingly see that creating healing relationships with one another is at the heart of building true transformative power to achieve land justice, with seeds of healing being planted every day.

November 28, 2022

What If the U.S. and China Really Cooperated on Climate Change?

By Michael Klare, Tom Dispatch

What if the two countries moved beyond simply talking and started working together to champion the radical lowering of global carbon emissions?

November 28, 2022

Health & welfare in a small farm future, Part 4

By Chris Smaje, Small Farm Future

In this view, small farm society is almost its own welfare system. But, as with every political vision, no doubt the reality falls somewhat short of the ideal. How would people take care of each other in a small farm future?

November 28, 2022

Stolen Lands: A Black and Indigenous History of Land Exploitation

By PennElys Droz, YES! magazine

Colonization, through genocide, land theft, and the imposition of private property, has dispossessed Indigenous and Black peoples of their homelands across the continents for generations.

November 23, 2022

How young climate activists built a mass movement to be reckoned with

By Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence

What’s clear is that, armed with wisdom from the past and a willingness to experiment that has long been a hallmark of youth climate activism, the movement of the future has potential to further re-shape politics in ways most of us can’t even imagine.

November 23, 2022

How to Survive Us: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow on a Broiling Planet

By Frida Berrigan, TomDispatch

To go back to the beginning, while such a thing is still possible, if nuclear weapons, the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, fossil fuels, and apocalyptic fear helped get us to this breaking point, we need something truly different now.

November 22, 2022

The Response: Mutual Aid with Joshua Potash

By Robert Raymond, Joshua Potash, Shareable

Mutual aid is a concept and practice that has come up many times in the stories we tell on The Response — so we thought it would be helpful to devote an entire episode to exploring what mutual aid is with someone who is deeply immersed in it on the ground.

November 22, 2022

Rural Realities | Succession – Passing It (All) On To The Next Generation

By ARC2020 Staff, ARC2020

Succession bridges the gap between generations. The link between the past and the future, it allows us to envisage the future – in continuity or forging new paths – informed by previous failures and successes.