Online Reporter
South Africa’s National Treasury is in talks to secure loans from Germany and the UK under the terms of a climate pact the US walked away from last month.
The Treasury said it’s in talks to secure so-called policy loans from lenders including KfW, Germany’s state development bank, and the African Development Bank, through which the UK is channelling its assistance by providing credit guarantees. It didn’t give further details in a response to queries.
The loans are evidence that countries that are part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership are pushing ahead with the program, even after the US cancelled plans to contribute US$1 billion in loans and US$48 million in grants.
People familiar with the situation said the two loans could total close to US$1 billion, asking not to be identified as a public statement hasn’t been made.
“While the withdrawal of the US is regrettable, the International Partners Group remains fully committed to supporting South Africa to deliver its just energy transition,” the other countries and groups in the pact — Germany, France, UK, the European Union, Denmark and the Netherlands — said in a March 19 statement.
The JETP, agreed in 2021, is designed to help South Africa, which has the most carbon-intensive economy of any nation with a population of more than 4 million people, cut its dependence on coal.
Similar programs have since been agreed between wealthy nations and Indonesia and Vietnam.
The US has quit those programs as well. — Bloomberg
