蜜芽传媒

South Africa has received a massive cash pledge to help it transition from using coal to renewable energy. The European Union, Britain and the United States have pledged $8.5 billion dollars to South Africa, which currently gets 90% of its power from coal.

Tunicia Phillips, the economic justice reporter for the Mail and Guardian in South Africa, has been closely following developments at COP26 and was not surprised by the announcement which will now accelerate the move away from coal already planned by the public company, Eskom.

"Plans were already in place to start mobilising finance to cushion the social impact and the impact on labour in these communities.鈥�

"A lot of effort is going in to see whether they can industrialise and commercialise green hydrogen, repurposing existing infrastructure so that the coal (industry) assets are not stranded."

(Pic: Matla Power Station, a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom in Mpumalanga province, South Africa; Credit: Reuters)