US Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Dr Jonathan Pershing during a Zoom briefing on Friday
US Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Dr Jonathan Pershing has described South Africa’s latest climate pledge as “extraordinary” and says the US and other donor countries will seek to support South Africa’s ambition to transition to a decarbonised economy “by the middle of this century” with concessional finance.
Pershing visited South Africa this week as part of a broader delegation of climate envoys from the UK, France, Germany and the European Union during which meetings were held with government Ministers and officials, trade unions, business and civil society.
The tour followed on South Africa’s announcement that it had deposited an updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) range of 420 – 350 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-eq) for 2030 with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which represented a marked improvement on its 2015 NDC pledge of 614 – 398 Mt CO2-eq.
“That’s exactly where we need to go and that kind of a decision, [as well as] the process that South Africa has taken, is extraordinary,” Pershing said during a virtual briefing on Friday, noting that the country’s updated NDC had been widely consulted domestically.
He described the discussions held between the envoys and South African stakeholders as “excellent” and said that he was optimistic that the conversations on how best to support South Africa’s “just transition” would continue ahead of the COP26 conference, which is scheduled for Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
Both grant and concessional loan finance would be needed and “we will talk to our South African colleagues and partners about both”.
He noted that as a middle-income country, South Africa was not always able to secure concessional loans from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions.
“But that does not mean there is not a need here [and] it doesn’t mean that there is not a demand for capacity building that isn’t really accessible on commercial terms.
“And so, yes, we believe that part of what the donors will be seeking to do is to help raise concessional finance for the South African transition.”