JET finance mobilisation and allocation

The following information and knowledge resources relate to South Africa’s progress in financing climate resilience through a Just Energy Transition.

Public Body Resources

1. Just Energy Transition (JET) Grant Mapping Register

https://www.stateofthenation.gov.za/priorities/growing-the-economy-and-jobs/just-transition-to-a-low-carbon-economy

The JET Grant Mapping Register is one of the monitoring and evaluation tools that has been developed by the JET Project Management Unit to implement South Africa’s JET Implementation Plan for 2023-2027. This JET Implementation Plan was published in November 2023 and it provides a roadmap based on short-and-medium-term actions, across nine portfolio areas, to enable South Africa’s just transition to a low carbon and climate-resilient society. The JET Implementation Plan, the JET Investment Plan, and the JET Project’s Register are all available on The Presidency’s State of the Nation website.

This initial JET Projects Register provides the project category (i.e. electricity, skills, municipalities), the implementing entity, total allocation (USD/ZAR), the funder, parties and key beneficiaries, status (i.e. pledged or implementation), project activities, and start and end dates.

Operator / Owner: JET Project Management Unit; The Presidency

User Notes

According to the JET Implementation Plan, future versions of the Mapping Register will include key terms and conditions; and contact details.
A number of the projects listed in the Mapping Register commenced and/or concluded prior to the JET Investment Plan and the JET Implementation Plan.
Use together with the National Climate Change Information System and the National Treasury resources below.

Training Material (Yes/No): No

https://www.treasury.gov.za/default.aspx

The National Treasury is responsible for managing South Africa’s national government finances. Sustainable public financial management is fundamental to the promotion of economic development, good governance, social progress and a rising standard of living for all South Africans. South Africa’s Constitution mandates the National Treasury to ensure transparency, accountability and sound financial controls in the management of public finances.

The National Treasury’s home website includes information on the different divisions, the current budget, publications and research, public documents for comment, relevant legislation, and media and communication. National Treasury’s Asset and Liability Management Division is responsible for managing government’s annual funding programme, including loans for just transition related activities.

Available resources include:

The Financing a Sustainable Economy Technical Paper published in October 2021;

The Medium Term Expenditure Framework Technical Guidelines 2024; and

The Green Finance Taxonomy published in March 2022

Operator / Owner: National Treasury

User Notes

National Treasury announces sovereign loans agreements through media releases. This includes the source of the funding, amount, interest rate, and term (in years).
See the Climate Budget Tagging note at the end of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework Technical Guidelines.
Use together with the JET Grant Mapping Register, the South Africa Sustainable Finance Initiative below, and the #Let’sResponseToolkit.

Training Material (Yes/No): No.

https://sustainablefinanceinitiative.org.za/

This Initiative is overseen by the Climate Risk Forum Steering Committee, chaired by National Treasury and hosted by Banking Association South Africa. It is supported by the International Finance Corporation, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

Its activities are split into technical working groups to support the implementation of the Green Finance Taxonomy (see above), the development of technical guidance, standards and norms for all financial institutions, a benchmark climate risk scenario for use in stress tests, and capacity and competency for good climate risk governance in South Africa

Operator / Owner: National Treasury

User Notes

See a 2022 Comparison of South Africa’s Green Taxonomy to the EU Taxonomy
See guidance notes and codes on climate risk and sustainable finance from financial oversight authorities.

Training Material (Yes/No):

Yes. Awareness and capacity building webinars are available from 2020/21

https://infrastructuresa.org/about-us/our-programmes/

Infrastructure South Africa is established as a single point of entry for infrastructure planning, management, and delivery. This serves as a catalyst for closing the infrastructure investment gap and meeting the infrastructure target set out in the National Development Plan. It also provides best practises in project preparation, leadership on infrastructure planning, technical and financial support for nationally prioritised infrastructure projects and programmes. Its mandate includes expediting project preparation in line with national objectives and creating visibility of the pipeline of strategic priority infrastructure projects through monitoring and reporting.

Project consideration and funding approval is supported by 8 technical working groups focused on: energy, water and sanitation, transport, digital communication, agriculture, human settlements, social infrastructure, and municipal infrastructure.

Infrastructure South Africa oversees the Infrastructure Fund, which is operated by the Development Bank of South Africa and it is committed to contribute R100 billion over ten years.

Operator / Owner: Department of Public Works and Infrastructure

User Notes

Infrastructure South Africa is tracking and monitoring the implementation of projects in its pipeline; the project pipeline isn’t accessible.
See the Infrastructure Development Scenarios For South Africa Towards 2050 Report which considers the impacts of climate change on the resilience of infrastructure systems.
See the Construction Book (2024/5) that describes 153 infrastructure projects related to the National Infrastructure Plan 2050

Training Material (Yes/No): No.

Private Body Resources

5. Fair Finance Guide South Africa

5. Fair Finance Guide South Africa
6. Just Transition Project Tagging Tool

https://www.fairfinancesouthernafrica.org/

Fair Finance Southern Africa is a civil society coalition working towards ensuring Development Finance Institutions invest in a socially and environmentally responsible manner in South Africa and Africa. The coalition focuses on issues of climate change and transparency.

South African Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and DFIs operating in South Africa include the African Development Bank (AfDB), Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC), Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), and New Development Bank (NDB).

Available resources include:

A report on Understanding South African Development Finance Institutions to Promote Accountability;

An assessment report on the Sustainability of Investment Policies for Development Finance Institutions in Southern Africa; and

Comments to the Presidential Climate Commission on the potential of Just Transition Financing Mechanism

Operator / Owner: Fair Finance Guide South Africa

User Notes

Fair Finance South Africa also runs an annual Fair Finance School and it has produced an activist guide for fair financing for climate justice available here.
Other research reports are available here.

Training Material (Yes/No):

Yes. See the activist guide for fair financing.

https://www.tips.org.za/projects/current-projects/item/4592-just-transition-transaction-framework

Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) is an independent, non-profit, economic research institution. It was established to support economic policy development, with an emphasis on industrial policy, in South Africa and the region.

TIPS has developed a Just Transition Project Tagging Tool to ensure that just transition funding and financing starts flowing immediately and is credibly, consistently, and transparently invested. This Tagging Tool is evidence-based providing a six-step approach to label a project as: just transition, not just transition, or just transition plus.

The development of this Tagging Tool is following a gradual learning process presented in the following publicly available resources:

Just Transition Project Tagging Tool Report (1st Iteration)

Just Transition Project Tagging Tool (1st Iteration): An Application to (18) Real World Projects

Just Tansition Project Tagging Tool (2nd Iteration: A User’s Guide) – This User’s Guide allows all interested parties to apply the tool to potential just transition projects and see whether they would be tagged as just transition or not.

Operator / Owner: Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies

User Notes

The User Guide cautions that the Tagging Tool is not designed to determine the accuracy of claims made by project leaders in terms of the evaluation steps explained below. Verification is the responsibility of the person relying on the designation.
See the launch of the Just Transition Project Tagging Tool (1^st Iteration) here.
Use together with the Just Energy Transition Grant Mapping Register and National Treasury resources above.

Training Material (Yes/No):

Yes. See the User’s Guide.

This online resource guide is part of exploratory research by ALT Advisory on the intersection of access to information and South Africa’s Just Energy Transition. It has been developed in partnership with the African Climate Foundation’s New Economy Hub. Learn more here.