By Tim Cocks, Francesco Guarascio and Fransiska Nangoy
(Reuters) – The United States withdraws from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, a collaboration between richer countries to help developing countries transfer from coal to cleaner energy, said various sources in important participating countries.
Jetp, which consists of 10 donor countries, was first unveiled during the UN climate discussions in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021.
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South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal were then announced as the first beneficiaries of loans, financial guarantees and subsidies to leave coal.
Joanne YaWoWch, head of the Just Energy Transition Project Management Unit in South Africa, said on Wednesday that the United States had communicated the withdrawal of the plan there.
In Vietnam, two foreign officials said with direct knowledge of the case that Washington withdrew from Jetp in the country, and one of them said that the US was also left of all JETP programs, also in Indonesia.
Another source that is familiar with the case said that the US had withdrawn from the Jetp in Indonesia and South Africa.
“We were informed by the US about their withdrawal,” said another source in South Africa in the donor group.
“A significant financing remains available, and the International Partners Group continues to be fully committed to supporting South Africa to deliver its just energy transition through the partnership,” the person said.
Since President Donald Trump returned to the office in January, Washington has reduced foreign help and defended the development of fossil fuels.
The US Department of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comments. The sources refused to be called because they were not authorized to talk about the issue.
The American obligations for Indonesia and Vietnam exceeded a total of $ 3 billion, usually due to commercial loans, while in South Africa the obligation was for $ 1.063 billion of $ 11.6 billion promised for the country.
(Reporting by Tim Cocks in Johannesburg, Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi and Fransiska Nangoy in Jakarta; Write by Sudarshan Varadhan; Edit by Tony Munroe and Sharon Singleton)
