President Cyril Ramaphosa Plans to Secure R140bn to End South Africa’s Dependency on Coal Energy

• President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to end the country's dependance on coal energy with investments
• Just Transition Framework, with the Presidential Climate Commission will secure $8.5 billion (R140 billion)
• The deals are being finalised with the governments of the US, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the EU

JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to obtain $8.5 billion (R140 billion) worth of investments that assist South Africa in moving away from coal energy.

Under the Presidential Climate Commission, Just Transition Framework will work with various partners to lessen the impacts of the transition from coal.

Ramaphosa said there would be a need for significant capital mobilisation from public and private sources. BusinessTech reported that he said the framework will be able to harness the benefits of the Just Energy Transition Partnership quickly. The deals are being finalised with the governments of the US, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the EU.

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Ramaphosa said the consensus achieved around its production means South Africa can make the transition forward in sync with all these stakeholders. He said it impacts mining, automotive, tourism and agriculture sectors.

Ramaphosa said that the Annual Performance Plans set out the skills development, economic diversification, social support, governance and finance mechanisms required to make a low-carbon economy a reality. According to Engineering News, the president added that green is the new gold.

South Africans are not impressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan:

@T___A____N said:

“I sure hope that a parallel plan is in place to ensure that those with jobs within the sector are trained to be able to either get jobs to do with clean energy or to start their own businesses within the green energy industry.”

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@chuchumakgala wrote:

“This will affect all the other southern African countries we supply electricity to.”

@deeJayBurd commented:

“R136bln of our R400bln debt. How to resolve the rest? The world doesn’t want us to use our cheap energy. We must rely on theirs.”

@LedwabaThabangt added:

“Now they want to kill the coal industry that creates huge employment and contributes greatly to the fiscus via tax revenue.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa discusses climate change and Africa’s readiness to be self-reliant at G7 Summit

In a related matter, Briefly News also reported President Cyril Ramaphosa discussed the effects of climate change that have contributed to the high cost of living in many developing countries during the G7 Summit.

During his visit to Germany, Ramaphosa said the G7 countries recognised that it’s not only developing countries responsible for carbon emissions. The countries pledged their solidarity to assist developing countries in traversing toward renewable energy type of economic development.

Source: Briefly News