Saliem Fakir
Fakir is interim executive director of the African Climate Foundation – saliem@africanclimatefoundation.org
The need for grit – industrialism in Africa
10th September 2021 Extractive industries offer no long-term solution for countries that continue to rely on their natural resources as levers for an economic boost;... →
Of insurrection, malls and hunger
27th August 2021 We have been made to believe the narrative that things were under control When, in July, looting and rioting broke out in KwaZulu-Natal and parts... →
Intersectional issues in renewables: the race debate in the energy sector
16th July 2021 We must guard against the idea that green means socially responsible and equitable. Green and optimum social outcomes are not synonymous;... →
The private versus the public: living within the hierarchical system
18th June 2021 Societies that are most vulnerable to economic piracy need countervailing forces to protect them from those who deliberately pursue actions... →
Gas-exporting countries in Africa and the problem of a displacement equivalent
14th May 2021 The public discourse around gas is intensifying. Climate activists have now made gas – which has been touted as being better than coal and a... →
Climate finance and the political economy of finance
9th April 2021 In his book, Feline Philosophy, which is about what cats can teach humans, John Gray points us to a few lessons. One of these is pertinent to what... →
The tragedy of abundant resources
12th March 2021 The coming into being of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) is giving momentum to an idea that has been very long in the making – a... →
The politics of knowledge production
12th February 2021 It has been an interest of mine for a long time – this question concerning the production of knowledge systems. The part that I will not focus on... →
Political economy of the just transitions in Africa
22nd January 2021 The term ‘just transition’ may seem a neologism, but in reality it is not so new. It originated from the depths of US labour movement struggles in... →
The framing problem and judgment– how to be aware of how not to frame
4th December 2020 For the human mind to cope with the world, it has to develop a set of frames of the world, or what can also be called heuristics. These sets of... →
Liberty, environmentalism and corporate power
6th November 2020 Individual utilitarianism is seen as primordial in conventional Western economic tradition. However, individualism does not always lead to better... →
Climate resilience: optimising strategies against uncertainty
9th October 2020 Climate resilience in Africa can only be optimised if other forms of social protection work in concert. This means you may not achieve success,... →
Industrial development in Africa – from theory to practice
11th September 2020 I recently participated in a panel discussion on industrial development in Central and West Africa, organised by the United Nations Economic... →
When facts matter and when they don’t
7th August 2020 It is common wisdom that, if you have evidence, that evidence should speak for itself. But the history of knowledge and ‘factfulness’ shows that... →
Social engineering is not just a socialist thing
10th July 2020 ‘Social engineering’ is seen in some circles as a swear phrase and associated with socialism – meaning surrendering individual sovereignty into... →
The Michael Moore view of the world
12th June 2020 Michael Moore’s documentary, Planet of the Humans (a play on the Anthropocene age), following his namesake, Roger Moore, in the James Bond 007... →
Economic lessons from Covid-19
8th May 2020 The current pandemic is not a black swan. Those who have been warning about it call it a white swan. Human history is replete with episodes of... →
Economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic
10th April 2020 There is a lot to learn from the Covid-19 pandemic for climate change, both in terms of how systemic disruption in one part of the world can... →
Why I don’t aspire to be a Twitterati
27th March 2020 Somebody asked me the other day if I had a Twitter accounT. I have never fancied myself as a serious fan of Twitter. I am quite cautious about... →
Securing the electricity grid from attack
21st February 2020 As the intensity of global geopolitics increases in what is fast becoming a multipolar world, different risks within an energy system have to be... →
Climate crisis – there is no safe place anymore
31st January 2020 There is a certain irony that, while the Paris Agreement was being debated in Madrid and going through its slow motion of nonaction towards the end... →
The circular economy movement and its place in South Africa
13th December 2019 The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) hosted a circular economy colloquium in partnership with the European Union from November 19 to 20.... →
Climate finance must be a mainstream economic issue
22nd November 2019 If climate change is a risk to economies, then it has to be placed in the mainstream of economic mainstream, rather than on the periphery. Economic... →
Can AfCFTA help stimulate Africa’s industrialisation?
1st November 2019 The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) was signed last year by the majority of the countries in Africa to create a common market and... →
Why SA should not install new nuclear capacity
11th October 2019 Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has reopened the debate on whether or not South Africa requires nuclear power or not. He has... →
How science has lost its touch
30th August 2019 These days, feelings matter more than facts, despite Hans Roslings’ plea for 'factfulness'. It is not the reasonableness of the argument or... →
Climate change and the future of food production in Africa
2nd August 2019 The International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) is the highest scientific body on climate change that provides perhaps the best scientific... →
Acclimatising physical infrastructure to extreme weather events
21st June 2019 Acclimatising conventional infrastructure to extreme weather Climate change and extreme weather patterns are already a factor in infrastructure and... →
Conservation as cost
7th June 2019 The conservation movement has been around for a long time. In its modern version, it can be traced to the curiosity of early explorers like Darwin,... →
Independent power producers and Weet-Bix
19th April 2019 There is a vociferous attack on independent power producers (IPPs) and renewables in South Africa, despite the energy crisis that the country is... →
Reflection on proposed splitting of Eskom
15th March 2019 The mere mention of the splitting of State-owned electricity utility Eskom into three parts invikes the conclusion that it is a Trojan horse for... →
Building sustainable economies through good governance of extractives industry
1st March 2019 A pertinent question remains unanswered: Can mining economies lead to sustainable economies? This is an appropriate question to ask in the context... →
The Eskom quagmire
1st February 2019 As we enter the year 2019, State-owned electricity utility Eskom, once a success story of South Africa's industrialisation programme, is now an... →
Reflections on global conventions in a postliberal order
18th January 2019 I was in Sharm-El Shaik, Egypt, in November at a gathering of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the Conference of the Parties (COP).... →
Africa’s infrastructure and recent climate report
30th November 2018 It was my first attendance at the yearly Africa Infrastructure conference, held in Sandton this year on October 9 and 10. Infrastructure has always... →
Strategic economics in times of uncertainty
19th October 2018 In his excellent three-volume work titled Wheels of Commerce, Fernand Braudel describes countries or city states as islands in a world economy.... →
The industrialisation debate in SA – what are the lessons?
21st September 2018 Manufacturing has been in slow decline in the past decade or so. The sector has always been treated as a useful link between mining and... →
Using Douglas North’s institutional economics to understand State capture
24th August 2018 Douglas North remains an influential institutional economist and his work on institutional economics can help us understand economic development... →
SA’s bioeconomy should be multipronged
3rd August 2018 The fact that South Africa does not have a White Paper or a holistic bio-economy strategy is the biggest of ironies, given that a vast variety of... →
Will the SDGs help us rewire the economy?
29th June 2018 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the new mantra, and everybody is trying to figure out the best way to leverage them; the question is... →
The Just Transition debate in South Africa
18th May 2018 South Africa is the only country that explicitly includes in its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) a mention of the Just Transition – this... →
