South Africa will develop a green investment plan of as much as $500 million (R7.3 billion), representing a fraction of what\u2019s needed, to fund its energy transition away from coal.<\/p>\n
The allocation of at least $200 million (R2.9 billion) would come from the Climate Investment Funds, including a $1 million grant to draft the plan, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy told reporters in the capital, Pretoria, ahead of the COP26 climate talks to be held in Glasgow later this month.<\/p>\n
The initial amount from the CIF\u2019s Clean Technology Fund \u201ccan leverage additional blended finance\u201d from development banks with a multiplier of three or four to one, she said.<\/p>\n
The country is the world\u2019s 8th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and offers a major opportunity to shift from burning coal to generate the bulk of its electricity to using clean energy technologies.<\/p>\n
Eskom Holdings the nation\u2019s main power producer and the world\u2019s biggest emitter of sulfur dioxide, is central to the government\u2019s investment plan that also involves a hydrogen strategy and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n
But with the state-owned utility making losses and stuck beneath unsustainable debt, it also needs financing to make the transition. It has outlined about R400 billion ($27 billion) needed to build generation to replace coal stations as well as transmission and distribution infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s on the table at the moment is small\u201d and additional funding including grants will be needed for South Africa to achieve such an undertaking, Creecy said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, envoys from some of the richest nations visited South Africa to discuss a potential deal toward ending its reliance on coal ahead of the COP26 meeting.<\/p>\n
The most industrialized nation on the continent will join others in Africa to call \u201cfor a common definition of climate finance, and accounting modalities as well as realistic, predictable and ambitious support\u201d balanced between mitigation and adaptation, Creecy said.<\/p>\n
The minister watered-down expectations around the summit to be mainly an opportunity to explain the challenges faced by the country. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect that at Glasgow anyone is going to be there with their checkbook,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Creecy said she\u2019s reiterated with Eskom and petrochemicals manufacturer Sasol, the nation\u2019s biggest polluters, that emission limits will be enforced. \u201cWe are not going to be giving exemptions.\u201d<\/p>\n