Civil Society in the Alternative Reform Agenda of the Just Energy Transition yesterday called on South Africa to join the G77 Group of countries in calling for the for the COP 29 Summit in September to push demands for a $5 trillion (R92trl) as an annual downpayment for climate debt owed by the global North to the global South.
The Group of 77 are a total of 134 countries with members including Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and China.
At a webinar co-hosted by the Institute for African Alternatives, participants said there was a need to call for climate damages.
“The demand provides a realistic attainable figure in addressing the urgent escalating climate needs. We know its doable and attainable because during the Covid-19 pandemic, rich countries were able to put together $16 trillion that developing countries used as a stimulus for their own economies. The G7 alone, spends $1 trillion annually from wars and conflict. We are amid the climate emergency… They muster the political will to mobilise these resources at scale,” a participant said.
The participants warned that countries changing regulations or breaching investment treaties were at risk of astronomical awards through the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals. The ISDS tribunals are increasingly making awards that extended beyond the sum of incurred costs to awards projected on future profits.
Sikho Luthango, a public policy analyst at the Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung Southern Africa, said in the upcoming COP summits, African governments needed to be aware of the financial risks of the transition as there were risks in the just energy transition of stranded assets.
Stranded assets are those that lose value or turn into liabilities before the end of their expected economic life.
Luthango said this was especially significantly in the oil and gas sector, accumulating to more than $1trl in stranded assets.
Speakers said there was need for a paradigm shift to reclaim fiscal sovereignty to be able to address development and climate action needs.
“There is a continued failure of developed countries to make good on the $100 billion a year pledge in climate finance. The OECD would have us believe rich countries have met and even surpassed the targeted pledge, but it it because they are clever at double and triple counting climate finance with humanitarian action with migrant aid, and everything they term as climate finance,” they said.
Meanwhile, according to the second quarter publication of the Presidency’s JET Register published yesterday, about R1.5trl is required in investments in South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JETIP) to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy with international pledges having increased to $11.7 billion from the initial $8.5bn pledged by the International Partner Group (IPG) in 2021.
The JET Grants Register records and monitors progress of projects which contribute to implementation of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET IP) and is the first stage of developing a full JET Projects’ Register to record all projects financed under the auspices of the JET IP and to showcase the JET projects pipeline.
Rudi Dicks, head of the project management office in the Presidency said, “The JET Grants Register provides transparency and accountability on how JET grant funds are being used, providing descriptions of financed activities, the amounts and sources of grants, and the implementing entities.”
While $821 million has been pledged as JET grants, $613m of this funding is reflected in the current JET Grants Register being the sum which has been allocated to JET projects to date. “As further allocations are made by the donors from the remaining pledged grant funds, these will be included in the quarterly updates to the JET Grants Register,” Dicks said.
He said the bulk of grant funding ($657m) has been provided by the IPG, and the balance by non-IPG partners who have chosen to join the JET Grants Register (Canada, Switzerland and Spain).
Germany has pledged $292m; the EU $125m; the US $62m; the Netherlands $61m; Climate Investment Funds $50m; the UK $42m; Switzerland $39m; Denmark $21m; France $4m; and Canada $1m.
Of the allocated grant amounts $275m is allocated to technical assistance; $161m is earmarked for capacity development; $98m is for infrastructure; and $66m is going to community development. Research has been allocated $17m; and $72m is being used for project preparations.
BUSINESS REPORT