According to a report from Bloomberg News on Thursday, the United States has postponed the delivery of $2.6 billion in climate finance to South Africa, creating concerns that the money may never be disbursed.
The delay comes after an intervention from the US government earlier this month to stop approval from the CIF, linked with the World Bank to provide an initial $500 million to South Africa. This funding would have led to the release of an expected further $2.1 billion from multilateral development banks and other sources of financing that is crucial for South Africa’s clean energy transition. Another effort for approval may be attempted at CIF meetings in June.
CIF is one of the biggest multilateral climate funds in the world, setup to assist developing countries implement solutions to climate change. The delay raises questions about U.S. commitment to financing global climate, particularly because the announcement comes after the U.S. exited the board of the United Nations fund for climate damages in March.
The action was noticed as part of Donald Trump’s overall strategy to back away from multilateral climate efforts. South Africa has been hoping for this funding to support its Just Energy Transition to gradually phase out its dependency on coal.
