Announcement of JET Investment Plan at COP27 is a milestone

A year ago, at the international climate change conference in Glasgow, France, Germany, the UK, the US and the EU agreed to provide $8.5bn for a Just Energy Transition (JET) Partnership to help SA shift to a greener economy. The work is urgent — load-shedding underlines the need for future energy security, while countries are competing for the green economic opportunities of the future.

The JET Partnership is rightly an SA-led process, and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of the JET Investment Plan at COP27 is a real milestone. It sets out SA’s priorities for the energy transition and will help guide how our $8.5bn is spent: it covers the steps needed to increase clean energy, support new green industries such as electric vehicles and green hydrogen, and manage this transition justly. 

This “just” component is particularly vital given the stark inequalities in SA. It is about making sure that workers and communities, especially mining communities, are not left behind. It is at the heart of our partnership. 

The JET Partnership is also about what is to be gained. The green growth opportunity is real, with the World Bank estimating a move to net zero could generate 500,000 additional jobs by 2050. SA can position itself as a leader in green tech, especially hydrogen. And, as a big car manufacturer, SA needs to pivot quickly to the electric vehicles that will become dominant in big export markets.

As well as extensive mineral reserves relevant to the green economy, SA has some of the best solar and wind resources in the world and its private sector has already shown that it can finance, build and manage these projects well.  Onshore wind and solar are 40% cheaper to build than new coal or gas plants, and far cheaper to operate. They do not use water or cause the air pollution that leads to 20,000 early deaths in SA a year. An early priority will be financing new transmission lines to connect renewables to the grid.

Transition is a decades-long process and there will be bumps along the way. Europe did not foresee that it would need to come off Russian gas so quickly due to the Ukraine war. But we are even more determined to shift towards renewables, with use of coal a strictly temporary measure. EU emissions will still reduce this year, with 50GW of new renewable capacity and plans for an extra 100GW next year.

EU member states’ coal phase-out dates remain unchanged as the EU stays the course to reach net zero emissions by 2050. A main advantage of renewables and electric vehicles is energy security, with less gas or petrol to import, with fluctuating prices and, as Eskom’s CEO has said, it is harder to steal the wind and sun.

The best reason to transition is to benefit future generations. Global carbon emissions must fall by half before 2030 and to net zero by 2050 to ensure a liveable future, otherwise floods such as those in Durban will be frequent and water shortages more commonplace. With SA warming at twice the global average, there is a risk of serious damage to its fabulous biodiversity and agriculture, with more disease and climate disasters.

The release of SA’s JET Investment Plan means our work now turns to implementation and getting funding moving. There has been early progress.  The Climate Investment Funds recently approved $500m of concessional capital, 65% funded by the UK, US and Germany, to support the repurposing and repowering of three power stations, as well as community development projects in Mpumalanga, and will leverage a further $2.1bn of finance.

France and Germany have concluded policy loan agreements with SA of $600m that will support the JET Partnership and the European Investment Bank has signed a $200m loan with the Development Bank of Southern Africa for renewable energy projects. The US has committed an additional $45m through USAid’s Power Africa programme, for energy sector decarbonisation and communities and workers affected by the transition from coal.

This finance, as well as other sources that will flow through the JET Partnership, is far more favourable than SA could get on the open market. We will also be working with the SA government on rigorous arrangements for monitoring and evaluating this spend, ensuring maximum impact.

We are all fully committed to delivering the JET Partnership with SA. The JET Investment Plan marks good progress towards building the green growth and future energy security we all want.

• The authors are respectively the UK high commissioner, the French Chargé d’Affaires, the German ambassador, the US ambassador and the EU ambassador to SA, representing the International Partners Group.