South Africa: “Just” Energy Transition Partnership

Germany, through its KfW development bank, signed an agreement to lend South Africa €500 million (R10 billion) at below commercial market rates to help it transition away from the use of coal-fired electricity. Yet Germany is using coal and reviving its old power stations

The concessional finance forms part of the $8.8 billion in climate financing offered to South Africa by some of the world’s richest nations in a 2021 agreement known as the Just Energy Transition Partnership.

It adds to the €600 million (R12 billion) Germany and France extended to South Africa last year. The interest rate on the most recent loan was not disclosed.

The loan “is intended to support the South African government in implementing reform measures that contribute to resolving the acute energy crisis in South Africa.

It will also contribute to “a socially acceptable and ecologically sustainable restructuring of the South African energy sector and to combating climate change.