The Presidency has released new details showing that $613-million of the $821-million in grants pledged to support South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) has now been allocated to projects.

The disclosure has been made in the second instalment of the online ‘JET Grants Register’ covering the first two quarters of 2024, and set up to record the nature of the projects being supported and to name the grant recipients.

The grants form part of the larger $11.7- billion in commitments made to South Africa’s JET-IP, including the $8.5-billion pledged in 2021 by the initial International Partners Group (IPG) of France, Germany, the UK, the US and the European Union, as well as those countries that have since joined the IPG (Denmark and Netherlands) and those supporting the JET-IP on a bilateral basis (Canada, Switzerland and Spain).

While the grant component has grown, there is still some unhappiness at the relatively low proportion of grant funding, with the bulk of the support to arise in the form of concessional loans, some of which have already flown into the National Treasury in the form of policy loans.

The JET Project Management Unit in the Presidency is overseeing the implementation of the JET-IP. A plan that outlines the need for R1.5-trillion in investment to 2027 to support workers and communities affected by coal mine and power station closures, as well as to facilitate the electricity transition, especially through grid infrastructure, as well as new energy vehicle manufacturing and emerging green hydrogen prospects.

The Presidency reports that Germany has pledged $292-million in grant funding, the European Union $125-million, the US $62-million, the Netherlands $61-million, the Climate Investment Funds $50-million, the UK $42-million, Switzerland $39-million, Denmark $21-million, France $4-million, and Canada $1-million.

Of the amounts allocated to date, the Presidency reports that the largest portion ($275-million) has been earmarked for technical assistance programmes, followed by $161-million for capacity development, $98-million for infrastructure and $66-million for community development. It reports that $17-million has also been allocated for research, and $72-million for project preparation.

The beneficiaries include local universities, science councils, industry bodies, municipalities, government departments, research groups and Eskom, but some of the grant funding has also been allocated to international consultancies and development agencies.

Projects on the register range from analysis of the revitalisation of ghost mining towns as part of preparations to support those Mpumalanga towns that will be affected by the closure of coal operations to green-hydrogen catalyst research and support for Eskom in its preparations for coal plant decommissioning.

Head of the Project Management Office in the Presidency Rudi Dicks says the grants register will be updated quarterly in the interests of “transparency and accountability”.

There are also moves under way to develop a full ‘JET Projects’ Register’ to record all projects financed under the auspices of the JET-IP and to showcase the project pipeline.