{"id":47454,"date":"2022-11-07T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T05:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=47454"},"modified":"2022-11-06T20:54:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-06T20:54:55","slug":"as-cop27-kicks-off-where-are-the-coal-to-clean-deals-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2022\/11\/07\/as-cop27-kicks-off-where-are-the-coal-to-clean-deals-at\/","title":{"rendered":"As Cop27 kicks off, where are the coal to clean deals at?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The key principles of climate diplomacy is that rich countries, who disproportionately caused climate change, should help poorer countries, who disproportionately suffer from it, to move towards cleaner technologies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years, there have been various vehicles for this. Loans, grants, technology and training pass from developed to developing countries directly and indirectly through multi-lateral development banks and specialist vehicles like the Green Climate Fund.<\/p>\n

At Cop26 in Glasgow last year, a new vehicle was announced<\/a>. The UK, US, France, Germany and the US announced they would provide $8.5bn to help South Africa transition from coal to clean energy.<\/p>\n

They called this a “just energy transition partnership” (Jetp). The “just” means they aim to look after the coal workers whose jobs are under threat from the transition from coal to clean energy.<\/p>\n

Since then, other countries have jumped on board. At the G7 summit in Germany in June, the group of seven developed economies declared<\/a> their support for the concept, adding Canada and Japan to list the of potential financial backers.<\/p>\n

The German hosts also invited Senegal, Indonesia and India along to the Bavarian summit. They, and Vietnam, then began talks with the partners on their own South-African style deals. So, as the first anniversary of the Jetp concept approaches, how are those talks going?<\/p>\n

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South Africa – Ambitious plan with stingy backing<\/h3>\n

South Africa’s Jetp got a lot of fanfare at Cop26. President Cyril Ramaphosa described it<\/a> as a “watershed moment not only for our own just transition but for the world as a whole”.<\/p>\n

Details were slow to emerge. But South Africa has been doing the legwork. On Friday, Ramaphosa unveiled a 200-page blueprint<\/a> for economic transition, poverty reduction and an end to blackouts through investment in renewables, green hydrogen and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

This will use the $8.5bn as a catalyst, Ramaphosa said, but that “is not sufficient to meet the scale of our ambition”. After factoring in expected investments from multilateral development banks and the private sector, there is a $39bn shortfall over the next five years, he estimates.<\/p>\n

To shore up more investments, John Kerry is proposing<\/a> to finance the part of the transition by allowing banks and companies to claim carbon credits for funding emissions cuts. The idea is controversial and has divided partner countries. Kerry could make an announcement at Cop27.<\/p>\n

The biggest concern for South Africa is taking on too much debt. Only 4% of the $8.5bn package comes as grants. The country will pay interest on the rest.<\/p>\n

That may not matter too much if the new clean industries turn a profit and boost the economy. However social security and retraining of coal workers is not obviously a profitable enterprise – and risks falling by the wayside.<\/p>\n

At a pre-Cop27 briefing, even South African environment minister Barbara Creecy sounded concerned. “We have to be careful of climate financing that enhances debt of developing countries”, she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n