‘We want to start accesing climate funds next year’

South Africa’s government wants to start accessing some of the US$8,5 billion in climate financing pledged by some of the world’s richest nations by early 2023, the head of its negotiating team said.

“That’s what we are aiming for and working toward,” Daniel Mminele, a former central banker governor who was appointed to head the talks for South Africa in February, said in a text message on Thursday.

The potential funding, which will be made available over three to five years, was announced at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.

Under the arrangement, the US, UK, Germany, France and European Union plan to provide finance to help the country cut its use of coal, which is used to generate more than 80 percent of its electricity.

South Africa, the world’s 13th-biggest source of greenhouse gases, will need to spend US$250 billion over the next three decades to fund the closing down of coal-fired power plants and development of replacement green energy such as wind and solar, according to a study released in May. − Bloomberg.