Pacific Islands Countries Switch to Renewable Energy

By Huang Xingwei, China View - October 17, 2008

Read Full Article: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/17/content_10210370.htm

The high cost of fuel forced the Pacific Islands Countries turn to alternative renewable energy sources. "There is a clear demand for renewable energy in light of the growing fuel prices in recent times," said Solomone Fifita, manager of the Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) based at the Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Program (SPREP).

A group of Pacific climate change experts were in Apia, the capital of Samoa, to attend the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable Meeting. "If one has to look at the outcome of the Pacific Leaders Forum meeting in Niue, they have expressed their need to prioritize renewable energy," the Pacnews quoted Fifita as saying. But most of these targets have only been formulated recently.

Only last month, Nauru committed that it will ensure that by 2015, at least 50% of its energy source would come from renewable means. Fiji on the other hand has committed that it will have a renewable energy utility by 2011. The small island of Niue has promised a 100% renewable energy economy, without setting a target date. Samoa in 2006 committed that by 2030, 20% of its total energy consumption will be from renewable and clean sources. Tonga on the other hand has set itself an ambitious plan to reach at least 40-50% in two years. Marshall Islands have also come up with a target too because of the recent fossil fuel crisis there.

"A lot of them are online with their targets, whether they achieve them or not is something else, but its good to have a target that should be continuously reviewed and monitored to bring it down to something quantifiable." Fifita told the Pacnews. The most common renewable energy sources now being pursued by a number of Pacific Island Countries are wind, hydro, geothermal and copra oil.