South Africa’s R1.5 trillion Just Energy Transition Investment Plan unveiled at COP27 can be used as a model for other carbon-intensive developing countries to follow. This will be helpful as developing countries have already indicated, at the beginning of the meeting, that they need help from rich countries to stop using fossil fuels. The plan seemed very vague when President Cyril Ramaphosa released it on 4 November, for public comment.
But the complete plan given to the International Partners Group not only clearly outlines how South Africa will apply the $8.5bn pledged by the IPG to help the country move away from its reliance on coal to a low-carbon economy over the next three to five years, but also the scale of needs and initial investments required between 2023 and 2027 to decarbonise South Africa’s economy by 2030.
“The main take away from the JET IP is that significantly more funding is required to successfully ensure a just energy transition that is socially inclusive. Fourie says this suggests a remaining funding gap of R700 billion that needs to be affordably secured to enable the implementation of the country’s JET IP, of which 21.3% is sought for the electricity sector, 19.3% for green hydrogen and 6.8% for restructuring of the automotive sector.