South Africa is the world’s 13th-biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions and relies on coal for more than 80% of its electricity. 

Illegal gold mining is destroying tracts of pristine rainforest in Congo's Okapi Wildlife Reserve, environmental organizations warned on Tuesday.

Sasol is the world's biggest producer of fuel products and chemicals from coal, but is transitioning away from the fossil fuel.

Mining companies have been particularly hard hit by the strike.

Negotiations to reach a pay deal have been unsuccessful, even after the government and an arbitration body joined the discussions between Transnet and its biggest labor unions.

"We have had a lot of licences being used for speculative purposes and we want to curtail that," Zambia's mines minister Paul Kabuswe.

The strike action has severely reduced staff at key ports that export iron ore and coal from South African mines and placed shipments of agricultural goods at risk.

The US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry is set to visit Vietnam next week and will travel to Mexico again before the UN climate summit in November.