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The pledge by some developed countries to provide US$8,5 billion to help South Africa move away from coal is nowhere near the trillions needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

It’s not even the full amount the nation’s struggling state utility Eskom needs to close its polluting plants, estimated at about $10 billion.

To climate diplomacy experts, however, it represents something of a breakthrough. The deal is already being held up as a model for helping other developing nations end their reliance on the dirtiest fossil fuel.

John Morton, a private equity investor and climate counsellor to the US Treasury, told the Washington Post that South Africa’s coal-intensive energy system made it, ironically, a kind of prize for donor countries.

But a rush to announce more such deals with coal-rich countries could eclipse something just as important: getting money to the countries that are smallest, poorest and most exposed to the effects of climate change. This might lack the excitement of “witnessing the end of coal in real time,” as one expert described the South Africa pledge, but it is no less crucial.

That’s not to say exuberance over the South African coal transition money is baseless — even if details have yet to be finalised. The arrangement could help to remake its coal-dependent economy.

While the government hasn’t unanimously endorsed it, it does have the support of President Cyril Ramaphosa, along with key unions and civil society groups and Eskom itself.

Other coal-rich developing countries have already indicated interest in similar deals. Indonesia, the incoming Group of 20 host, is another middle-income country heavily dependent on coal. — Bloomberg