European politicians and diplomats held talks with officials and workers' unions in South Africa's coal belt on Wednesday to try to persuade them that switching to renewable energy from fossil fuels need not leave them destitute.

The discussions in Mpumalanga province involving rich nations funding the energy transition aim to overcome resistance from communities fearing economic meltdown.

At Emalahleni, "the place of coal" in Zulu, union leaders were openly sceptical at speeches suggesting job losses could be offset by a boom in climate-friendly energy.

A bucket wheel excavator processes coal at the Phola Coal Processing Plant near Witbank, in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa January 17, 2023. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

"I don't think one meeting will persuade them," Elsebeth Krone, the ambassador of Denmark, told Reuters. Denmark is one of the Western countries funding a $11.6 billion package to help one of the world's top 15 greenhouse gas emitters' shift to cleaner energy sources.

"Today was just one example of how to have this dialogue".

Germany, Britain, France, the European Union, United States, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland are also funding the programme whose ultimate aim is to help South Africa quit coal in favour of its abundant sun and wind energy.

Owing to its reliance on coal for electricity, Africa's most industrialised country spews more greenhouse gases than Britain, France or Italy, watchdog Climate Transparency says.

"The coal industry and its jobs are not sustainable," French ambassador to South Africa David Martinon told delegates at the town ringed by smoke stacks and cooling towers, adding that France was about to disperse a second loan.

"Coal will be a thing of the past."

But coal jobs stand at over 90,000, not including the thousands of traders living around mines and power stations.

"When all speeches are said and done, we need to see the practical terms ... a real commitment to leaving no one behind," Collen Mahlangu, a Mpumalanga-based leader of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), told Reuters.

In an interview with Reuters, Stine Leth Rasmussen, the Deputy Director General of the Danish Energy Agency, noted that Denmark's Esbjerg port, which historically supported low-skilled manual jobs related to oil, was now a major offshore wind hub.

"If South Africa (can) ... succeed in being the renewable leader in the continent ... (it could) also serve as a role model for other … countries to say: 'well, this can be done,' she said.