Fin24 reports that Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele has warned that SA’s manufacturing sector needs to move urgently towards producing electric vehicles, or around 100,000 jobs could be wiped out in the next five years as key export destinations move to ban petrol and diesel cars.
The European Union has given local vehicle exporters until 2030 to decarbonise the sector, after which they will stop importing internal combustion engine vehicles assembled in SA. "If we don't move in pace with that call, no fewer than 100,000 jobs are under threat. In other words, in that sector, we lose our status as a stakeholder and trading partner in the sector beyond that period," Gungubele told Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy on Tuesday. Gungubele was talking about the country's Just Energy Transition (JET) Investment Plan, which prioritises investment in the energy sector, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen from 2023 to 2027. The plan sets out a goal to decarbonise SA’s economy by 2030 in a manner that preserves the environment, the economy, and livelihoods. It outlines spending of R1.5 trillion in five years, but currently has an estimated funding gap of 44% or R700 billion. Head of the Presidential Climate Change Task Team, Daniel Mminele, said SA would continue mobilising for more funding from other countries, regional economic groupings, and philanthropies, with the outstanding amount to be raised from "as diverse a set of funders as we can get". He indicated €600 million was secured and would begin to flow into the system next year from French and German financing institutions.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24
- Read too, SA faces R700bn funding gap for just transition, at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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