South Africa’s newly appointed environment minister, Dion George aims at effective utilization of the billions of dollars in climate finance allocated to the country for renewable energy development.
George, a member of the country’s second-largest political party and recently appointed as part of South Africa’s first coalition government since the 1990s, highlighted the need to implement the $9.3 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership. This partnership, established with some of the world’s wealthiest nations, aims to transition South Africa to renewable energy sources. He also stressed the importance of improving the connection of renewable energy plants to the national grid.
“We’ve got the money, and now we must spend it. That is what I am animated about.” He stated
Although the deal was secured in 2021, and emulated similar agreements in Indonesia and Vietnam, South Africa has yet to decommission any coal-fired power plants as promised. Also, it has only added 150 megawatts of renewable energy to its grid.
The minister noted that closing coal-fired plants is contingent on establishing sufficient renewable energy capacity to maintain an adequate power supply, necessitating faster construction of renewable energy projects.
Some of the backlash is due to recently failed renewable energy government tenders, and numerous projects could not proceed due to a lack of transmission capacity. This follows South Africa’s constant power cuts due to inadequate power generating capacity since 2008.
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