Pacific leaders discuss plans to break fossil-fuel reliance with major donors
Leaders from the Pacific island nations gathered in Auckland Monday with representatives of major international donor organizations to discuss how their nations can break free of their dependence on imported diesel to generate their electricity.
The tiny nation of Kiribati was one of the first to announce progress at the two-day Pacific Energy Summit with an agreement with the World Bank to deliver reliable solar energy to its 110, 000 people.
The project to be jointly funded by the Australian government and the Global Environment Facility was expected to reduce diesel fuel use in Kiribati by up to 230,000 liters a year, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Kiribati faces big challenges it is remote, it is at risk from the effects of climate change, and it is vulnerable to economic shocks," Kiribati President Anote Tong said in a statement.
"Shifting Kiribati's focus to reliable solar energy will provide a more secure, more sustainable power source for the country's people."
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key welcomed the delegates on Sunday, saying the summit was intended to connect Pacific island leaders and their energy plans with donor organizations and technical experts and businesses from the private sector.
More than 400 delegates and 100 companies are attending the event, which is jointly hosted by the New Zealand government and the European Union.
European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs last week announced new EU funding of 10 million euros (13.04 million US dollars) to boost access to sustainable energy for the poorest and most remote Pacific islands, bringing total EU funding to more than 100 million euros.
Piebalgs said in a statement that it was clear the Pacific island nations would see no development without sustainable and affordable energy.
The high costs of importing fuel resulted in a real lack of access to affordable and sustainable energy that disadvantaged about 46 percent of people in the region and considerably affected health, education and trade opportunities.
Most of New Zealand's Pacific neighbours should move close to achieving 50 percent of their electricity from renewable means as a result of the summit, New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said last week.
Currently most Pacific countries delivered well under 10 per cent of their electricity renewably, with an overriding dependence on diesel generation.
"Despite years of rhetoric about climate change, Pacific nations have had too little practical assistance to make the most significant available improvement to both their environmental and economic circumstances: a shift from extremely expensive imported diesel to environmentally friendly renewable sources of electricity. In a region that possesses sunshine and wind in abundance, that is simply not good enough," McCully said in a statement.
Some countries such as the Cook Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu depended on imported diesel for over 95 percent of their electricity generation, while others had a strong base for renewable energy such as Vanuatu (19 percent mostly from wind) and Samoa (40 percent from hydropower) but still needed a concerted effort from the donor community to reach their potential.
In addition to most Pacific leaders, the summit is being attended by international donors such as the EU, Australia, Japan, China, the United Arab Emirates, the World Bank Group and Asian Development Bank, and the heads of international organizations, including the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Solar panel installation in the United States 
Last Tuesday,  Australia and the World Bank's Global Environment Fund (GEF) reached an agreement to give the government of Kiribati 5 million (4,779,000, 5,985,000, 3,885,000) to install  around the country capital, located on the  .  According to  of , AusAID promised AU$3.2 million in funding, while GEF promised US$1 million.  The country was the first in the Pacific to make a deal with the World Bank.

The funding was part of a US$530 million (635 million) package announced at yesterday's Pacific Energy Summit in  involving New Zealand and the European Union, Australia, the , the , the , the , and the United Arab Emirates.  Also at the summit yesterday, New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister  had announced a national commitment of USD$54,262,000 (AU$51,861,000 NZ$65 million, €42,178,000) to Pacific region energy solutions, of which US$8,348,000 (AU$8 million, NZ$10 million, €6,483,000) would be specifically earmarked for renewable energy and improved energy efficiency in the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.
Kiribati is heavily dependent on  for most of the energy available on the national power grid, which supplies power to half Kiribati's population of 110,000. In addition, a third of the country's population lacks access to electricity. Once installation of the solar panels is complete, they are estimated to reduce diesel consumption by 230,000 liters (60,760 gallons) a year and give access to the electricity to some parts of the population that currently have no electricity.  The European Union already has committed €100 million to sustainable energy in the region, with €10 million of that coming as a result of an announcement made last week. 

In a press release about the news, Kiribati President  was quoted as saying, "Kiribati faces big challenges it is remote, it is at risk from the effects of climate change, and it is vulnerable to economic shocks. ... Shifting Kiribati's focus to reliable solar energy will provide a more secure, more sustainable power source for the country's people." '''' quoted Tong as saying, "It's the first time we are doing this. We're excited at the prospect of even substituting fossil fuel to a small extent at this stage. What the system being envisaged will only produce around 500 kilowatts, but this is the beginning of what I hope will be a pattern, the trend in the future."

The European Union's Fiji-based head of operations for the Pacific region, Renato Mele, supported alternative energy solutions like solar power for the region, but said that solar power had limitations because climate and environmental conditions sometimes meant batteries required to power the panels had a life of only 12 months, compared to other climates where batteries normally last five years.  This created the potential to drive up standard operating costs. Mele has also noted these additional costs though are still lower than the cost of diesel power.

'''' Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver noted, "Governments will be able to put the money they (currently) spend on diesel into things like education and health."


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