Climate finance is one of the fundamental three pillars of the Paris Agreement of 2015. Section two states that countries must “align finance flows with a path of low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.” For developing countries such as South Africa this would only be possible through financial support obtained from climate finance donor countries and institutions.

The Nationally Determined Contributions of South Africa towards the Paris agreement were largely based on the National Climate Change Response Policy (NCCRP) which aimed at ensuring that South Africa transitions to a low carbon, climate resilient economy and society. This would be achieved through the Climate Change Flagship Programmes which would require the South African government to source funding to implement these programmes. South Africa currently has 8 programmes in the pipeline which are; National public and private sector energy efficiency programmes, national public sector renewable energy programmes, embedded renewable energy programmes, diversion of solid waste from landfills programmes, climate resilient agriculture programmes, credit lines for climate resilient agriculture, greening higher education residences programme, national land restoration and rehabilitation programmes. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change provides South Africa with funding from these funding mechanisms; Global Environmental Facility, the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund. Furthermore, South Africa receives funding from the Bilateral Fund, National Green Fund, Adaptation Fund and the Multilateral Development Banks (Clean Technology Fund). The finance inflows overview of South Africa is; Grants ($158,093,553), Loans ($457,500,000), Co-Financing in cash and kind ($3,109,641,552) and the fiscal support ($86,095,100).

There are numerous projects that have been funded in South Africa by the different funding entities, these projects include; the South African Sustainable Energy Accelerations Programme ($77,5 Million), Eskom’s proposed 100 MW-capacity Upington Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, ($250 million – World Bank $200 million and African Development Bank $64.4 million), Project preparation funding ($1.5 Million), Small grants Fund for small adaptation projects ($2.5 Million), Promoting Organic Waste-to-Energy and other Low-carbon Technologies through Accelerating Biogas Market Development ($4.2 Million), Improvement of industrial energy efficiency in South Africa through the introduction of energy management and energy systems optimization.($5,7 Million), Wind Energy Project (SAWEP) – Phase II ($3.6 Million), Energy Efficient Low-carbon Transport ($1,3 Million), Cleantech Programme for SMEs in South Africa ($1.9 Million), Equity Fund for the Small Projects Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (non-grant) (DBSA) ($15 million), Cities-IAP: Building a Resilient and Resource-efficient Johannesburg: Increased Access to Urban Services and Improved Quality ($8 Million) and the Capacity Building Programme to Implement South Africa’s Climate National System Life ($1,1 Million).

The South African Government has been doing well in terms of sourcing numerous funds for projects to advance the South African Nationally Determined Contributions. This includes writing and submitting proposals that are relevant to the interest and needs of our country. There is however, more room for the utilization of funds to ensure that these projects are thoroughly implemented. There is also still more to be done to fund raise for Climate Adaptation programmes, as more funds are channeled towards mitigation as opposed to adaptation.

Minister’s Personal Assistant:
Mr Claude Mogambrey Nadasen
Environment House,
473 Steve Biko,
Arcadia, Pretoria, 0083
South Africa
Telephone: +27 12 399 8769
Cell: +27 082 376 7164
E-mail: CNadasen@environment.gov.za