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South Africa: Just Transition’s partners should do more, says Finance minister Godongwana

By Xolisa Phillip, in Johannesburg

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Posted on January 30, 2023 16:20

 © United States Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen attends a bilateral meeting with South Africa’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana at the National Treasury in Pretoria, South Africa on January 26, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP)
United States Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen attends a bilateral meeting with South Africa’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana at the National Treasury in Pretoria, South Africa on January 26, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP)

South Africa’s $8.5bn Just Energy Transition partners, including the US, could do more and should factor greater grant funding in the pledged package deal, says Finance minister Enoch Godongwana. 

Speaking to his American counterpart, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, during a closed session on Thursday 26 January, Godongwana also made an appeal that global collaborators recognise Africa’s “special needs and circumstances” in climate-change financing discussions.

  • In 2021, South Africa became the recipient of $8.5bn in pledges from international partners comprising rich nations at COP26 in Glasgow to help transition the country’s carbon-intensive coal-based economy into a greener one.

In its Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, South Africa estimates a need for a $98bn investment in clean energy and other programmes, including green hydrogen infrastructure and electric vehicle manufacturing, over the long term.

At the Glasgow meeting, South Africa became a pathbreaker because it was the first country to have a Just Energy Transition Partnership. As part of the $8.5bn

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