Opportunities, challenges of Green Economy For Pacific Communities

[Stacey King]

Islands Business:

‘The Pacific Islands region has notched up consistently significant achievements in the renewable energy space in  the past few years. It is on these that the region needs to build on. So far, it has been fairly successful in attracting funding for small sustainable energy projects with reports of their success appearing in the regional media quite regularly’

Over the past decade, increased global awareness of issues related to climate change and sea level rise has brought their effect on the Pacific Islands region—more particularly the smaller islands states—into sharp focus.

The worsening situation in atoll states like Kiribati and Tuvalu and to a slightly lesser extent in other islands nations has brought the international media in droves into the region and the plight of the islands widely publicised in the world’s news and features channels.

Though this increased awareness has scarcely brought in funds that were supposed to be made available after mega-climate change jamborees like Bali, Copenhagen and Cancun for mitigation and adaptation initiatives regionally, it has certainly helped progress smaller, more local programmes—particularly in developing clean energy alternatives.

The islands region needs to build on this and showcase to the world how renewable energy can rapidly replace energy generation from non-renewable sources.

Last month, Finance and Environment Ministers of several Pacific Islands discussed opportunities and challenges for building “green economies” in the region in Apia, Samoa. The meeting was a preparatory one for next year’s Rio+20 Conference being held to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the first Rio Environment Summit of 1992.

The concept of the green economy envisages economic growth that is environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive, involving a transformation in development values and priorities.

Last month’s meeting concluded with identifying an all encompassing, integrated and inclusive approach as a key to the successful implementation of the green economy in the Pacific Islands region.

Such a sustainable, renewable energy based economy is seen as a timely response to the challenges faced by small islands nations in the Pacific brought on by the impact of climate change as well as other crises triggered by the global financial, fuel and food crises.

The Pacific Islands region has notched up consistently significant achievements in the renewable energy space in the past few years. It is on these that the region needs to build on. So far, it has been fairly successful in attracting funding for small sustainable energy projects with reports of their success appearing in the regional media quite regularly.

Late last month, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) concluded its first governing council meeting. Tonga happens to be the only Pacific Islands country on the council, appointed earlier this year at a meeting in the Middle East—a major recognition of the work on green energy being done not only in Tonga but in the region as well.

At last month’s meeting held at the IRENA headquarters in Abu Dhabi, the 148-member country organisation approved the selection procedures for a US$350 million partnership between IRENA and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. The fund is targeted at concessional loans for energy projects in developing countries like Tonga.

At that meeting it also endorsed Tonga’s Prime Minister, Lord Tu’ivakano, as chairman of the agency’s Governance and Legal Committee, making the Prime Minister upbeat about achieving the stiff target of deriving 50% of the country’s energy needs from renewable sources by the end of next year.

Clearly, that target is well nigh impossible to achieve as things stand, but it is good to have stiff targets, however unrealistic they may seem, than to have none at all. The upshot of last month’s IRENA meeting is that more funds would be available for projects in the Pacific Islands countries.

Another related event—a capacity building programme for officials of Pacific Islands governments to help them tap funds for renewable energy and other ecologically friendly programmes for their respective countries was held the Cook Islands last month.

 

Funds for renewable projects are available from funding agencies around the world but many smaller nations lack the resources and experience to put together formal proposals to tap these funds in a manner that the financing agencies can consider according to the norms and standards that they apply for assessing projects.

The week-long “Writeshop” helped hone the skills of officials to research and write viable proposals for renewable energy projects. Participants included officials from the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Funding from the Pacific Environment Community Fund and the Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) made the workshop possible. PIGGAREP aims at reducing the growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use in the islands through the removal of the barriers to effective use of renewable energy technologies. It is administered by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

Importantly, the Green Economy conference concluded that a bottoms-up approach that began at the grassroots level was the most workable plan in the implementation of any meaningful initiative. Such a strategy automatically puts individuals and communities at the centre of all development, as it should be.

The stakeholder spectrum, therefore, must be wide and must encompass all groups across the community including the private sector, which is usually left out of development initiatives for whatever reasons. The meet recognised this important group as a partner, which indeed is a welcome development.

Partnerships of all sorts are important in making things happen in the Pacific especially in sectors involving innovation and sustainability that have an impact on communities.

One such recent initiative under way between an NGO in India and outfits in Tonga is a case in point. Two Tongan women are currently undergoing training in assembling solar powered electrical units in India. Upon their return, they will help assemble these units in communities in Tonga and train other women to do likewise.

There are several other smaller projects around the Pacific Islands such as solar powered street lighting in Nauru, small, solar powered community radio stations in several countries, experiments with wind farms and increasing use of biofuels.

International funding is increasingly available for small renewable energy projects around the world. Workshops like the one held in the Cook Islands last month have helped build capacity in accessing these funds with the help of preparing viable project reports. Added to that the impressive track record of the islands and their growing reputation as successful implementors of these projects puts the islands region in an enviable position to display its mettle at the Rio+20 Conference next year.

It’s also an opportunity to show the world that although the islands have suffered because of environmentally unfriendly policies of the developed world, it is capable of showing the way to reverse the effects, even if it is in a small way.