South Africa and Indonesia will receive a combined $1 billion from the Climate Investment Funds to replace some of their coal-fired power plants with renewable energy facilities, part of global efforts to cut planet-warming emissions.<\/p>\n
The allocation of $500 million (R9 billion) each to the coal-dependent countries will come in the form of \u201cconcessional,\u201d or low-cost, finance, the World Bank-affiliated fund said in a statement Thursday. The money will come from the CIF\u2019s Accelerating Coal Transition investment program.<\/p>\n
In South Africa, the money will be used to close coal-fired electricity stations and replace them with renewable energy plants and battery storage systems, it said.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, CIF will work with state power provider PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara and private companies to accelerate the closure of 2,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation in five to 10 years and explore how that capacity can be replaced.<\/p>\n
South Africa is the world\u2019s 13th-biggest producer of greenhouse gases, with 45% of its annual 452 million tons of emissions coming from electricity generation. Indonesia is the 10th-biggest emitter.<\/p>\n
Almost all of South Africa\u2019s energy is produced from coal by troubled state power company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and the country suffers from regular blackouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the next eight years, South Africa needs $60 billion in investments to effect the transition\u201d away from coal, Barbara Creecy, South Africa\u2019s environment minister, said.<\/p>\n
The money allocated there is part of a $2.6 billion package being mobilized from public and private sources by the government to help pay for the clean energy transition, it added.<\/p>\n
South Africa is also negotiating $8.5 billion in climate finance as part of an agreement with the US, UK, Germany, France and the European Union known as the Just Energy Transition Partnership.<\/p>\n