Cape Town - In the light of Cyril Ramaphosa’s new measures to combat South Africa’s energy crisis, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) looked at how BRICS’ New Development Bank is channelling its funding.
On Monday, Ramaphosa announced how he plans to stabilise the energy crisis that forced the country into Stage 6 earlier this month. The president admitted the power utility was “unreliable and vulnerable” and said the new measures allows Eskom to procure power from private entities such as shopping malls, mines and paper mills, as well as purchasing from neighbouring countries in the SADC region.
Meanwhile, the HSRC’s Krish Chetty, in partnership with Nelson Mandela University, the University of Venda, and the South African BRICS Think Tank, hosted a webinar on Tuesday to share ideas and strategies on renewable energy and other green infrastructure projects.
Looking into the financing of renewable energy, Chetty noted that the BRICS New Development Bank has been investing in clean energy projects since 2016, with the respective heads of state urging partners to turn to the New Development Bank more often in order to source financing.
“We also have the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, which was introduced in 2017,” said Chetty.
“And this is to allow BRICS to extend lanes of credit to each other in local currency and limiting their exposure to the US Dollar,” he said.
Chetty added that South Africa and China have so far been the leading beneficiaries in channelling finances from the New Development Bank with respect to clean energy.
The bank has 14 different infrastructure projects, which has a total of over $4 billion (R67.6 billion), with China having received $1.4 billion and South Africa $1.43 billion.
“It’s important to note that BRICS also classifies clean coal, nuclear energy and gas as clean energy sources,” said Chetty.
“China’s big projects have been in gas generation, offshore wind and solar; while South Africa has used the funds for carbon extraction, for energy storage as well as generating and transmitting energy,” he said.
IOL