In the year since high-income nations agreed to pay South Africa to wean itself off coal power, worldwide interest in the concept of just energy transitions has soared.
At the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 26, in Glasgow last year, Group of Seven donors pledged $8.5 billion to help South Africa transition from coal to renewable energy while also creating new jobs. Although the scheme has encountered a number of hurdles, at this year's COP 27 in Egypt, South Africa signed two major loan agreements to implement the plan.
While South Africa has received much of the attention, the Asia-Pacific region is where the Just Energy Transition Partnership, or JETP, model will evolve further, with a $20 billion agreement announced on Tuesday for Indonesia — a potentially even more challenging prospect, as the country’s coal-fired power plants have many more years on them.