Speaker: Dr Basani Baloyi - Warwick Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) Visiting Fellow based at the GLOBE Centre.

In the absence of radically scaling up multilateral financing mechanisms, the dominant approach to climate finance remains in place. This approach is encapsulated in South Africa’s Just Energy Transaction Partnership (JETP) agreed between the government and an International Partners Group (IPG) aimed at supporting countries in energy transitions and associated social and economic impacts. The deal prioritises commercial and concessional loans over grants with a strong bias towards supporting mitigation measures and infrastructure development with limited focus on economic diversification and social provisioning. Importantly, the JETP Investment Plan forms part of the current shift in international development finance towards using public finance as catalytic capital to mobilise private finance, such as through ‘blending’ and ‘derisking’ financial instruments. This entails the state assuming much of the risks of investment, whether through sovereign guarantees or guaranteeing private sector projects substantial returns. The Institute for Economic Justice, along with partners has been heavily involved in shaping positions that are critical to the status quo and also shaping positions that construct critical pathways for just transition financing. This discussion will outline these contestations.