President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked the world’s developed economies, who he says bear responsibility for climate change, to provide funding for SA and other developing countries to transition to a renewable, clean energy future.
Ramaphosa wrote in major global business publication Financial Times, that as politicians, business and other leaders gather in Glasgow, Scotland for United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP26 this week, the "welfare of our planet and its inhabitants at stake".
He wrote that SA’s trading partners were trying to achieve net zero carbon emissions, and were likely to increase restrictions on the import of goods produced using carbon-intensive energy. In SA, coal is the source of 77% of the country’s power. This meant that SA had to urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a low-carbon economy.
"Where we arrive in this range depends on the support we get. South Africa’s ambitions cannot be achieved without the more developed economies meeting promises they have made to provide financial assistance to developing economies in their energy transition," Ramaphosa wrote.
In 2009, and again in 2015, the world’s richest countries promised to pay developing countries $100 billion a year (between 2020 to 2025) to help them address climate change. This has not happened.
He said the help must come in the form of grants, loans or private investment.
"We are encouraged by the commitment that many of our international partners have shown to support this transition, and to develop models of collaboration that could be applied in other countries," the president wrote. "This, to be clear, is not about charity. This is about fairness and mutual benefit. Countries with developed economies carry the greatest responsibility for climate change because they have historically been the biggest polluters."
Fin24 reported on Sunday that in the runup to the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the US, the UK, Germany, France and the European Union would partner with SA to launch the Just Energy Transition Partnership
Von Der Leyen said in an address that the idea was to "support South Africa to phase out of coal faster", and to "go earlier and faster into developing renewables".
Fin24 reported last week that Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said meetings with envoys showed there was an appetite among foreign governments to support the country's move away from coal.
This however also comes as the issue of renewables has become politicised, with the Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe earlier in October criticising the speed of the move away from coal, saying it could destabilise the economy just because "we are greedy" for green funding.
