05 November 2009
- Media statement - Department of Environmental
Affairs - THURSDAY, 05 NOVEMBER 2009: The
current United Nations Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, culminating
in Copenhagen in December, aims at reaching
agreement on strengthening the international
climate change regime beyond 2012.
South Africa is cautiously
optimistic about the deal emerging from
the talks, in light of the deep difference
in views between developed and developing
countries on key principles such as the
need for developed countries to lead on
emission reduction and to meet the commitment
they have made to support developing countries
mitigation and adaptation with finance,
technology capacity building support. South
Africa has consistently indicated its willingness
to contribute to global action to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions within the framework
of developed countries historical responsibility
for current emissions and a common responsibility
by all for the future.
South Africa’s expectations
for the outcome of Copenhagen are informed
by our national interests and our strategic
priorities.
•South Africa needs
global reductions in Green House Gas (GHG)
emissions to ensure that the impacts of
climate change do not undermine our development
– health impacts, job loss, drought, floods,
water, sea level rise etc
•South Africa as a developing country with
huge developmental challenges needs carbon
space in order to meet our developmental
needs. We cannot afford to take on any binding
emission reduction targets
•South Africa has an energy intensive economy.
In order to transform to a clean energy
economy South Africa needs access to international
finance and technology.
•Low carbon and clean technology development
and innovation are areas where South Africa
can benefit from international participation.
Given South Africa’s social and economic
inequalities and developmental challenges,
its vulnerability to the impacts of rising
global temperatures, it is crucial to secure
a fair outcome in Copenhagen. An outcome
that respects the Convention’s principle
of common but differentiated responsibilities
that considers national and regional development
priorities within the context of sustainable
development and stabilisation of greenhouse
gas emissions.
Despite not being legally
bound to any targets, South Africa is proactively
exploring and engaging mitigation options,
with the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) as
one of a myriad of such interventions to
meet our clean technology goals.
CTF was set up as part
of the G8 Climate Change initiative to provide
long term highly concessional loan funding
for low carbon development. South Africa
is the Co-Chair of the CTF Board. The Board
met in Washington on the 27th October 2009
and considered the Clean Technology Plan
for South Africa. The Committee endorsed
the plan and agreed to an envelope of up
to US$ 500 million in CTF funding to finance
the plan.
The South African Investment has identified
the following area as priorities:
•Energy efficiency /Solar
Water Heaters
•Grid-connected solar power options, including
Concentrated Solar Power
•Wind Power
Support from the Clean Technology Fund is
seen as critical step in supporting South
Africa’s ambitious climate action, allowing
for technology demonstration projects to
take place, providing much capital and credit
flows that enable early action and forming
a base from which transformative interventions
can be built. The implementation of South
Africa’s CTF Investment Plan will contribute
to South Africa’s stated commitment to address
climate change at a national level and make
initial investments in South Africa’s green
economy thereby laying the foundation for
green jobs and a transition to a low carbon
economy. The $500million is expected to
leverage another $1 billion for low carbon
initiatives.
For MEDIA Enquiries:
Albi Modise (Chief Director: Communications,
Dept of Environmental Affairs)
+ More
$500 MILLION INFUSION
GIVES SOUTH AFRICA CRITICAL BOOST TO MEET
AMBITIOUS CLEAN ENERGY GOALS
05 November 2009 - Media
statement - Department of Environmental
Affairs - Clean Technology Fund endorses
South African plan to scale up grid-connected
renewable energy, solar water heaters for
a half million South African households,
energy efficiency
WASHINGTON, D.C., November
05, 2009—On Tuesday, October 27, developed
and developing countries endorsed a Clean
Technology Fund (CTF) funding envelope of
$500 million for South Africa’s CTF Investment
Plan (IP). This paves the way for South
Africa to move closer to its vision of generating
four percent of its electricity from renewable
energy by 2013, improving energy efficiency
by 12 percent by 2015, and providing 1 million
households with solar water heating over
the next five years.
South Africa’s Long
Term Mitigation Scenarios (LTMS) have allowed
for the development of a national climate
policy based on what is required by science
to limit temperature increase to two degrees
Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In
response to the LTMS, the Government has
adopted mitigation strategies that focus
on accelerated energy efficiency across
all sectors, ambitious low carbon technology
research and development, new clean energy
sources and behavioral change, as well as
regulatory mechanisms and economic instruments.
As a result of these strategies, South Africa’s
emissions would grow at a reduced rate in
the short term, plateau by 2030, and decline
thereafter. In support of the Government’s
strategies, the CTF co-financed IP will
focus on scaling up grid-connected solar
thermal power, utility-scale wind power
development, solar water heaters, and demand-side
energy efficiency. A Phase 2 of the IP is
expected to include substantial investment
in low carbon transport, on the basis of
a transport sector greenhouse gas inventory
that the Government is undertaking.
“We are delighted to
receive this financial support and signal
of endorsement of our clean energy plans,”
said Ms Buyelwa Sonjica, South African Minister
of Water and Environmental Affairs. “Many
of our citizens struggle to get access to
the most basic of energy services. This
plan allows us to help them move directly
into a new era of energy access, based on
the principle of low-carbon growth and development.
In this way, South African citizens can
serve as models of a new way of life based
on clean energy.”
The priority areas to
be funded under the CTF-funded IP are:
¦Conversion of
a half million households from electric
to solar water heating (SWH) over the next
five years, by providing support to municipalities
and the private sector to deploy solar water
heaters. This helps move the country half-way
to the Government’s ambitious goal of converting
1 million households from electric to solar
water heating over the next five years.
CTF support would accelerate SWH market
penetration and development of a domestic
SWH industry by buying down high installed
cost, market development, and demonstrating
business models.
¦An Eskom (South African electricity
public utility) 100 MW-capacity Upington
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, which
will be the first-ever commercial scale
CSP plan in Sub-Saharan Africa. The IP will
include final design and risk mitigation
review followed by plant construction and
operation, creating the transformational
effect of promoting CSP deployment, particularly
in the private sector, by proving the technology
in operation and establishing cost and performance
benchmarks. The promise of CSP is as a realistic
alternative to coal power plants for base
load capacity.
¦Eskom’s Western Cape Province Wind
Energy Facility (Phase 1 100 MW wind farm),
which will be the first utility-scale wind
power plant. CTF support would transform
the nascent wind sector with a robust pipeline
of large-scale wind power projects, along
with an increased understanding of the bankability
of wind development projects. Investments
in transmission capacity to connect Independent
Power Producers to the grid would catalyze
substantial private sector investment in
wind power.
¦Increasing potential energy efficiency
investments through expansion of bank lending
to commercial and industrial sectors through
lines of credit to commercial banks, contingent
financing to foster energy service companies
(ESCOs), and financial incentives or risk
products to market leaders. The CTF-funded
IP will address barriers to energy efficiency
investments, such as high preparation and
other transaction costs, perceived risk
of energy efficiency projects on the part
of commercial lenders, and organizational
biases against investing in cost reduction.
“The governments on the CTF Trust Fund Committee
welcomed the South African initiative, and
appreciate the Investment Plan’s path-breaking
approach,” said Zaheer Fakir, South Africa
Department of Environmental Affairs, Chief
Policy Advisor: International Governance
and Relations and co-chair of the CTF. “We
look forward to the lessons which will emerge
from this new Investment Plan, and to new
clean development approaches and technologies
which South Africa will help bring to the
forefront.”
The CTF investments
will mobilize financing of about $1 billion
from bilateral and multilateral financiers,
plus private sector financing. Partners
in the CTF IP include the Government of
South Africa, African Development Bank,
World Bank, and International Finance Corporation.
The South African Investment
Plan is the fifth plan endorsed by the CTF.
Three other plans, for Turkey, Mexico, and
Egypt, were approved earlier in 2009.
About the Clean Technology
Fund
The Clean Technology
Fund (CTF) is a multi-donor trust fund created
in 2009 as part of the Climate Investment
Funds (CIF) to provide scaled up financing
for the demonstration, deployment and transfer
of low carbon technologies that have a significant
potential for long-term greenhouse gas emissions
(GHG) savings. CTF resources amount to approximately
$5 billion pledged by donors (Australia,
France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, United
Kingdom, United States). The CIF, implemented
jointly by the African Development Bank,
Asian Development Bank, European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American
Development Bank, International Finance
Corporation, and World Bank, is comprised
of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) to provide
scaled up financing for the demonstration,
deployment and transfer of low carbon technologies
that have a significant potential for long-term
greenhouse gas emissions savings; and the
Strategic Climate Fund (SCF), a suite of
three targeted programs to pilot new approaches
to climate action, each with potential for
scaled up, transformational action: the
Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR),
the Forest Investment Program (FIP) and
the Program for Scaling Up Renewable Energy
in Low Income Countries (SREP).
Albi Modise (Chief Director: Communications)
