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European Union leaders announced €4.7 billion euro investment package in South Africa
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
South African President Cyril Ramaposa meets with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday [EPA-EFE/HALDEN KROG]
The first of a new generation of deals securing raw materials is being negotiated with South Africa, as existing deals emphasising just energy transitions for growing countries barely hang on.
Brussels is busy working on a set of next-generation clean trade and investment partnerships that the European Commission said should secure “raw materials, clean energy and clean tech from across the world.”
First target: South Africa, whose President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed to start negotiations on the new treaty with the EU today.
“You have clean energy in abundance, from wind to sun. You have raw materials that are critical for electrolysers, including 91% of the world’s platinum group metal reserves,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday during her visit to the country.
The talks between Brussels and Pretoria come four years after the EU and partners including the US and UK launched a world-first energy partnership to help South Africa shed its addiction to coal. The agreement represented a new era of global cooperation, but the US this year ditched the deal it co-signed.
The South Africans hope a new agreement will help them navigate the EU’s complex landscape of environmental rules.
It would “serve as a very good forum for regulatory cooperation between EU and South Africa,” Ramaphosa said. The deal would enable South African energy company Sasol to “export sustainable aviation fuel to the EU” a few years down the line, he said.
Does that mean the era of agreements that help growing economies move away from fossil fuels is over?
“It is too early to say that Just Energy Transition Partnerships are on their way out,” Pieter de Pous of climate think-tank E3G’s said, pointing to the UK’s willingness to stay in despite the US exit.
But that does not mean the EU’s experience in South Africa has been very good, either.
“It shouldn’t come as a surprise that helping SA reduce their dependence on coal has proven to be rather complicated,” de Pous said.
The von der Leyen visit came with an announcement of €4.7 billion in new investments, including €303 million in grants provided by the EU and its members.
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