Barbara Creecy, South African Environment Minister has stated that she expects the long-delayed implementation plan for an $8.5 billion climate pact with some of the world’s richest nations to be completed by the COP28 summit that starts on November 30, 2023.

The so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership, which aims to help coal-dependent South Africa transition to cleaner energy, has been slowed by infighting, with opposition coming from politicians close to the coal lobby and labor unions concerned about job losses. Coal is currently used to generate more than 80% of the country’s power.

While initially announced at the COP26 meeting in Glasgow in 2021, most of the funding can’t flow until the implementation plan, to be formulated by the government, is complete. South Africa’s pact with France, Germany, the UK, US and European Union is the first of its kind. The Netherlands and Denmark are also in talks to join the JETP, sources reported.

Dan Jorgensen, Denmark’s environment minister, confirmed that his country is engaged in talks but declined to elaborate. Similar plans are now being pursued with Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal.

“We want to conclude issues around the implementation plan ahead of COP28,” Creecy said in an interview at the Africa Climate Summit in Kenya’s capital Nairobi this week. The plan has also been delayed by a power supply crisis in South Africa, with the government having made it clear to the foreign partners that energy security is a key priority, according to the minister.

The Country to Stick to Its Emission Reduction Targets

While the country will stick to its emission reduction targets, the planned closure of coal-fired generation units will be delayed, including those at the Camden plant that are next in line to be decommissioned, Creecy said.

“We are not going to take those units at Camden off production,” she said, citing ongoing widespread power cuts, which are being instituted for more than 10 hours a day this week. “We can’t.”

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP28, will be the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference, held from November 30 until December 12, 2023, at the Expo City, Dubai.

The conference has been held annually since the first UN climate agreement in 1992. It is used by governments to agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change.

The UAE pledged to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, the first middle eastern government to make such a pledge. They were also the first country in the region to sign the Paris Agreement on September 21, 2016. The country has invested $50 billion into clean energy internationally, and promised an additional $50 billion by 2030. In November 2022, the UAE agreed to partner with the United States to invest another $100 billion in clean energy.