Can you tell me more about the transition deal with wealthy nations?
The promises of the $8.5 billion are yet to materialize. There’s an ongoing discussion between South Africa and industrialized countries about the terms of the agreement. At COP27, the global climate summit in Egypt last year, South Africa laid out a transition plan that included solar and wind farms, battery development and building electric vehicles, a sector that could create much-needed jobs.
But then the energy crisis got worse.
Right. When that happened, President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled a new plan to solve the immediate energy problem. While it included diversifying energy sources to include renewables, the main focus was to fix the existing plants. And almost all of them are coal-fired.
It doesn’t help that the war in Ukraine has forced some industrialized countries to compromise on their green ambitions. South African politicians and commentators, even those who were not vociferous defenders of coal, have pointed to this and questioned why the country should rush its transition.
What does South Africa need to meet its energy transition promises?
South African officials have said the $8.5 billion would be just a start of the more $80 billion the country would need to implement its plan. Officials have positioned funding as the main stumbling block to the energy transition, but it’s more complex than that. Funding is needed, but so is political will.
What stands in the way of the transition right now?
The current energy crisis is the main obstacle. South Africans want an immediate solution that will keep the lights on, and transition takes time. There’s also political opposition. The most powerful opponent is the energy minister, Mantashe, who is largely seen as one of Ramaphosa’s lieutenants.
And then, there is corruption. In a recent interview, the former head of Eskom, de Ruyter, who stepped down in December, said he had expressed his concerns about attempts to water down the governance around the $8.5 billion from the transition deal to a senior government official. The response, he said, was that “in order to pursue the greater good you have to enable some people to eat a little bit.”
