Billions of dollars of cheap loans that were promised as part of SA's groundbreaking climate finance deal at COP 26 in November 2021 have stalled at the door of Eskom following the reluctance of the utility to take additional debt onto its balance sheet.
Eskom is also operationally constrained in how fast it can expand the transmission grid and did not spend all of the transmission capital budget in the 2023 financial year. The climate finance deal saw the International Partners Group - the UK, US, EU, Germany, France, and the Climate Investment Fund - pledge $8.5 billion to assist SA's just energy transition from coal to greener forms of energy. The JET also aims to ensure that communities that depend on coal mining and power generation for their livelihood are not left stranded in ghost towns, as the role of coal diminishes. South Africans need to be in the know if we want to create a prosperous future.