Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago
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Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago urged wealthy nations
to meet commitments to share the cost of transitioning to a greener economy and
not “hoard” vital climate change technology.
“A just transition requires that benefits and costs are
shared more equally within countries but also amongst countries,” he said
Saturday in Marrakech, Morocco, during the annual meetings of the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank.
“Advanced economies need to honour their commitments,
not only because it is just but also because in many cases it makes economic
sense,” he said. “The planet will warm up for all of us.”
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South Africa’s $8.5 billion Just Energy Transition
Partnership, signed in 2021, aims to help the coal-dependent country transition
to cleaner energy. But it has been slowed by infighting, with opposition coming
from politicians close to the coal lobby and labour unions concerned about job
losses.
Coal is currently used to generate more than 80% of the
country’s power and the cost of transition is very high.
Kganyago cited a World Bank estimate of R8.5 trillion, which
he said was equivalent to roughly 180% of the country’s gross domestic product,
and that helping to finance climate transition would reduce global mitigation
costs.
“If there is one thing that the Covid-19 crisis taught
us it is that global problems require coordinated global solutions,” he
said, noting that once vaccines had been produced they were held back by the
developed world.
“In the just transition, the technology is also coming
that would save the planet,” he said. “If the response is to hoard
the technology in the developed world, the just transition shan’t be.”
