COP26 is already starting to yield results through the Political Declaration on the Just Energy Transition in South Africa made by the governments of South Africa, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union yesterday.
This should lead, over the next 3-5 years, to the mobilisation of at least $8.5 billion (R131 billion) to be targeted at assisting South Africa to justly transition away from coal, focus on developing local value chains and manage Eskom’s massive debt burden.
These are, however, just promises and the Declaration – although laudable as a start to a partnership – does not itself provide any concrete commitments. What it does do is establish a 12 month action plan towards, amongst other things, ‘determin[ing] the scope of supported actions;’ and ‘develop[ing] a full programme of work for this partnership on the basis of an investment plan for the just energy transition of the South African government, including support to address the social and economic impacts.’
We look forward to seeing this programme and watching the partnership materialise.
#cop26glasgow #southafrica #energytransition #nextsteps