The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is backing a €3 bn ($3.26 billion) plan to wean North Macedonia off coal-fired power. The deal, expected to be announced at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, will lay out a plan to close the country’s two coal power plants and replace them with 1.7 gigawatts of renewable energy. The 'Just Energy Transition Investment Program’ (JET-P) follows similar efforts to retire coal plants more quickly in South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Senegal, with the support of governments, public lenders, and private investors.
The price tag of €1,500 for each of the Balkan nation’s 2 million people underscores the difficulty many small or low-income countries face in financing a transition to cleaner energy. A coalition of countries announced a $20 billion JET-P deal during COP27 last year to help Indonesia close coal-fired power plants, following an $8.5 billion pledge in 2021 to help South Africa transition away from coal.
North Macedonia joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance in 2021, but its completion date was pushed back to 2030 in January last year due to energy security concerns triggered by the war in Ukraine. The World Bank was not immediately available to comment, and the North Macedonian government did not respond to a request for comment.
Leo Roberts, a programme lead for E3G, said the deal is a good example of EBRD using a framework such as JET-P to create much-needed financing for small nations that cannot access the significant capital they need for cleaner energy via other channels.
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EBRD Investment in Macedonian Green Energy
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