JET-Ps: Climate Finance that Greens the Economy

South Africa

Just Energy Transition

GEAPP is linking up learnings and strengthening collaboration globally to help realise the full potential of the JET-P finance initiative.

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As part of GEAPP’s mission to accelerate equitable energy transitions, we have established strong relationships and programmes in three Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P) markets: South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam. Three countries with good energy access but with electricity systems which run on coal.

The JET-Ps are climate financing interventions designed to accelerate the move to clean energy. They show the position GEAPP has carved out as a trusted partner – to each country’s government, to the International Partners’ Group (IPG), and to the set of multilateral supporters, which underpin the schemes. GEAPP acts as a connector and facilitator, working to improve both the effectiveness of the existing JET-Ps and speed up future new funding.

Rooted in its philanthropic founding, GEAPP lays significant focus on the ‘Just’ part of the JET-P formula.

In South Africa, GEAPP has, for example, funded and supported the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), a ‘big tent’ coalition of partners including private sector, government, communities and labour. The PCC helps articulate why an energy transition is important to different stakeholders and society. It tackles societal concerns and champions equality to ensure the transition is truly inclusive and seeks to avoid some losing out. South Africa has crucial experience in this type of collective dialogue given its background with similar commissions. The benefits of the PCC model have led GEAPP to recommend a similar approach in Vietnam and Indonesia, tailored to their own needs.

GEAPP’s contribution

South Africa is where GEAPP is testing its most impactful role globally in support of job creation and the reskilling of displaced communities.

In Mpumalanga (Komati), east of Johannesburg, where a coal plant operating since 1961 was closed last year, GEAPP is funding the set-up of a facility to retrain coal workers with the expertise needed to run the new renewable energy plant being co-located there. This is highly localised community work, which can be scaled up across other parts of affected South Africa, generating national impact and reach.

As with so much GEAPP does, the goal is rapid replicability. Our work in South Africa is achieving this in many ways including facilitating networking, knowledge sharing and learnings between JET-P countries; providing counsel to both JET-P and the IPG governments; and supporting coordination amongst multilateral donors, implementers and investors. Following several months of close collaboration with the South African government, the Indonesia government requested GEAPP’s similar support with its own JET-P2 implementation and preparation for its funding package. GEAPP set up learning sessions with South Africa and Indonesia, expanding in February 2023 when the Government of Vietnam officially announced its partnership with GEAPP on its own JET-P.

Our simultaneous JET-P work in these three countries is an example of GEAPP’s ability to be a global and trusted partner to many; allowing us to systematise our support to government, to accelerate shared learnings, and deepen the impact of our activities.