The enlarged International Partners Group (IPG) has reaffirmed its commitment to extend concessional funding to South Africa in support of the country’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) and has also confirmed that total financing commitments have been increased to $9.3-billion from $8.5-billion.

Initially comprising France, Germany, the UK, the US and the European Union, the IPG was expanded earlier this year to include Denmark and the Netherlands.

In a statement released ahead of the COP28 climate talks, which will begin in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, later this month, the IPG also announced that the overall grant financing component had been increased to $713-million, representing a 116% increase from the amount committed at COP26 in 2021.

The IPG, which has been criticised for the modest level of grants in the package, reported that about half of the pledged grant funding had been committed, with a further 35% in the planning stages.

“A significant proportion of these funds are being spent on economic diversification, training and reskilling projects in Mpumalanga province, where over 85% of coal-related jobs are currently based.”

The IPG also welcomed the progress that South Africa had made on its JET-IP implementation plan, which was approved by Cabinet at its most recent meeting.

The plan will guide implementation of the far larger JET-IP, which was itself approved ahead of COP27 last year, and indicated that investment of about $99-billion will be required to support South Africa’s transition to greater climate resilience over the coming five years.

The JET-IP sets out investments that South Africa will need to make in electricity, new energy vehicles and green hydrogen to ensure its climate resilience is in line with decarbonisation targets outlined in the Nationally Determined Contributions lodged with the United Nations.

While some policy-related loans have already been advanced to the National Treasury, the formal release of the implementation plan was seen as crucial for triggering further advances.