US Seeks Deals to Wean Countries Off Coal Ahead of Egypt Talks

(Bloomberg) -- Weeks before international climate negotiations convene in Egypt, US officials are working to broker multibillion-dollar plans to steer some of the world’s most populous countries to cleaner forms of energy.

“We’re very much engaged in negotiating with Indonesia, with Vietnam, with South Africa and Mexico,” John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said in an interview Thursday. “There’s a lot of energy going into these efforts.”

Kerry is set to visit Vietnam next week and will travel to Mexico again before the UN climate summit in November, he said. That comes amid ongoing negotiations with Indonesia and work to develop a detailed investment plan for a landmark $8.5 billion initiative to shift South Africa’s power system away from coal. 

The regional initiatives are part of an effort to drive green energy and climate progress in developing countries, buttressing broader multilateral efforts. Rich countries have been encouraged to provide financing to support clean-energy initiatives to nations such as South Africa and Indonesia under a rubric branded “just energy-transition partnerships.”

“We’re creating a formula by which countries are able to embrace real transformation to move to a clean energy economy,” Kerry said. 

Read more: A landmark $8.5 billion climate finance deal hangs in the balance

Meanwhile, Kerry said he continues to press Wall Street to drive billions of dollars into clean-energy projects around the globe.

“We’re working on a way to attract private capital to the table in a way that has environmental integrity and which can accelerate the deployment of funds.”

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