This is a contribution by the researchers on the Climate Finance for Equitable Transitions (CLiFT) project to the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) submission to the South Africa Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) Consultation on the Just Energy Transition Plan (JET-IP).The JET-IP is part of a multi-country funding initiative, the Just Economic Transition Partnership (JETP), by a coalition of developed countries to support a number of developing countries' transition away from dependence on coal and other fossil fuels.

Key Messages:

We identified three concerns in the financing package proposed by the JET-IP that could undermine climate and sustainable development objectives and fiscal alignment, and that potentially give rise to legal, regulatory, policy and governance risks beyond the JET-IP:

1. reliance on debt instruments as a means of financing the JETP-IP;
2. reliance on private sector financing and the use of official sector finance to ‘de-risk’ financial investments, notably through blended finance instruments and public-private partnerships (PPPs);
3. limited financing and social safeguards to fully operationalise a ‘just transition’.

Our contribution outlines key areas of fiscal, legal and social risks posed by these three features of the JET-IP. These include financial regulatory and policy risks, investment law risks and socio-economic transition and governance risks.

This contribution was submitted by:

• Professor Celine Tan, Professor of International Economic Law, Warwick Law School, University of Warwick, UK
• Dr Anil Yilmaz Vastardis, Senior Lecturer, Essex Law School. University of Essex, UK
• Dr Gamze Erdem Türkelli, Assistant Research Professor in Public International Law, Human Rights and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Belgium

and draws on the work of NeF DeF researchersLink opens in a new window.

Published: March 2023

Authors