PREVIEW
International support for South Africa’s renewable plans will on the agenda at EU summit
In line with his opposition to renewable energy projects, President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke and rescind the United States International Climate Finance Plan will mean cancelling over US$1.5 billion in support from Washington for South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).
The programme was agreed with the EU and other industrial countries in 2023, with a total value of $8.5bn to finance South Africa’s move away from coal dependency to cleaner energy. Grant projects that were previously funded and in planning or implementation phases have been cancelled, Cyril Ramaphosa’s government confirmed on 6 March. The US has also ended its participation in similar agreements with Indonesia and Vietnam.
It fits with the administration’s international posture. One of President Trump’s first executive orders on 20 January was to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. The US move may undercut efforts to boost climate finance pledges at the UN’s COP 30 Climate Summit due to be held in Brazil in November.
Support for South Africa’s JETP – Britain on 7 March said that it would continue to fund the plan – will be on the agenda at an EU-South Africa summit in Johannesburg starting on 13 March.
EU officials have used the Trump administration’s attacks on the Ramaphosa government, which also include the suspension of all aid and economic partnerships in South Africa, to rekindle the bloc’s relationship with Pretoria after earlier tensions over Ramaphosa’s trade and diplomatic ties with China and Russia (Dispatches 5/2/25, Trump wages economic war over land bill).
The European Commission has indicated that it will not increase its aid budget to plug the gap left by Washington. It is set to announce a series of new investment in green hydrogen, a sector which the commission is keen to support as the EU diversifies its own long-term energy supply, and other renewable energy projects.
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