JETP South Africa

The Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with South Africa was announced on 2 November 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow by South Africa together with an "International Partners Group" (IPG) comprising France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. The initial pledge totalled USD 8.5 billion over an initial period of three to five years, delivered through a mix of grants, concessional loans, commercial loans, guarantees, and private-sector investment.

The partnership is intended to support the decarbonisation of South Africa's electricity sector — dominated by state utility Eskom and among the most coal-intensive in the world — while addressing the social impacts on coal-dependent regions, particularly Mpumalanga province. Priority investment areas identified in South Africa's Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) 2023–2027, published in November 2022, include the electricity sector, new energy vehicles, and green hydrogen.

Key features:

• Governance: coordinated by the Presidential Climate Commission and a JET Project Management Unit in the Presidency.
• Financing mix: the bulk of the pledged funds are concessional loans rather than grants, a point of domestic criticism.
• Scope: focuses on accelerating the retirement of coal plants, scaling renewables and grid investment, and supporting workers and communities affected by the transition.

The JETP model was subsequently extended to Indonesia (announced at the G20 Bali summit, November 2022), Vietnam (December 2022), and Senegal (June 2023), making South Africa the template case. Implementation has faced challenges including South Africa's severe load-shedding crisis, debates over the pace of coal plant decommissioning, and tension between climate ambition and energy security. The country's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets emissions of 350–420 Mt CO₂-eq by 2030, which the JETP is meant to help finance.