APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South Africa’s just energy transition plan has received a big boost, with Spain providing a US$2.3 billion investment to the programme first announced at the UN Conference of Parties 26 (COP 26) on climate change in the Scottish city of Glasgow two years ago, APA learnt on Thursday.
At COP 26 some developed countries, including Spain, pledged US$8.5-billion as Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) between South Africa and funding partners – including France, Germany, the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union.
According to Pretoria-based Spanish ambassador Raimundo Robredo Rubio, the funding is being provided through a mixture of financial instruments, with his government working with its own development finance institution of Cofides and South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation.
Pretoria produced an energy transition plan last year that estimated it would need at least US$84 billion to invest in the programme over the next five years.
The US$2.3 billion funding comes at a time when frequent breakdowns of aging coal-fired plants have subjected the country to a rotational loadshedding lasting for more than six hours a day.
The energy transition programme has been hailed as a pioneering example of how rich nations could help wean developing nations off their dependence on coal as a generator of electricity.
“This is the first time in history we have done something like this. It is tailor-made just for South Africa, with the potential to replicate it in other countries,” the envoy said.
JETPs are also being put in place in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal, he added.
NM/jn/APA