US withdrawing from plan to help major polluters move from coal, sources say

By Tim Cocks, Francesco Guarascio and Fransiska Nangoy

(Reuters) - The United States is withdrawing from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, a collaboration betwixt richer nations to assistance processing countries modulation from ember to cleaner energy, respective sources successful cardinal participating countries said.

JETP, which consists of 10 donor nations, was archetypal unveiled astatine the U.N. clime talks successful Glasgow, Scotland successful 2021.

South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal were subsequently announced arsenic the archetypal beneficiaries of loans, fiscal guarantees and grants to determination distant from coal.

Joanne Yawitch, caput of the Just Energy Transition Project Management Unit successful South Africa, said connected Wednesday that the United States had communicated its withdrawal from the program there.

In Vietnam, 2 overseas officials with nonstop cognition of the substance said Washington was withdrawing from JETP successful the country, and 1 of them said the U.S. was besides exiting from each JETP programmes, including successful Indonesia.

Another root acquainted with the substance said the U.S. had withdrawn from the JETP successful Indonesia and South Africa.

"We person been informed by the U.S. of their withdrawal," said different South Africa-based root successful the donor group.

"There remains important concern available, and the International Partners Group remains afloat committed to supporting South Africa to present connected its conscionable vigor modulation done the partnership," the idiosyncratic said.

Since President Donald Trump returned to bureau successful January, Washington has slashed overseas assistance and championed improvement of fossil fuels.

The U.S. authorities section did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. The sources declined to beryllium named arsenic they were not authorised to talk connected the matter.

U.S. commitments for Indonesia and Vietnam exceeded $3 cardinal successful total, mostly done commercialized loans, portion successful South Africa the committedness was for $1.063 cardinal retired of $11.6 cardinal pledged for the country.

(Reporting by Tim Cocks successful Johannesburg, Francesco Guarascio successful Hanoi, and Fransiska Nangoy successful Jakarta; Writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Tony Munroe and Sharon Singleton)