The Presidency of South Africa is exploring options to increase the grant component in the financing of the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP).
- Concerns have been raised by stakeholders about the limited nature of grant funding in the initial $8.5 billion pledge made by developed countries.
- Discussions are underway with multilateral funding institutions, philanthropic organizations, and developed economies to secure additional grant allocations for JET-IP projects.
- The JET-IP is a $99 billion, five-year investment program aimed at facilitating South Africa’s energy transition.
- The plan includes investments in electricity generation, storage, network infrastructure, energy vehicle manufacturing, and green hydrogen industries.
- The criticism received was related to the level of grants in the package, prompting efforts to increase the grant funding to support “just” investments in the energy transition.
- The grant funding would particularly support projects that cannot be implemented with concessional loans or fiscal injections alone.
- The JET-IP includes initiatives for skills development, municipal upliftment, and small business development, which were deemed inadequate by civil society stakeholders during consultations.
- An implementation plan addressing these deficiencies will be presented to Cabinet for approval in October, providing a detailed investment roadmap for the deployment of funding.