NZ exceeds commitment to Pacific renewable energy

  • Murray McCully
Foreign Affairs

Foreign Minister Murray McCully today updated Pacific leaders and post Forum dialogue partners on the progress being made to implement renewable energy projects agreed to at the 2013 Pacific Energy Summit.

“On average 80 per cent of the Pacific’s electricity generation comes from imported diesel and 10 per cent of the Pacific’s GDP goes towards importing fossil fuels,” Mr McCully says. 

"At the Pacific Energy Summit the international community committed $635 million to accelerate action on renewable energy in the Pacific to address this. A year and a half on, we can see that donors and development partners are delivering on commitments they made.

“New Zealand committed at least $65 million over three years for more than 18 projects in seven countries: the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu. We have already exceeded this commitment and now plan to spend more than $80 million on 25 renewable energy projects around the Pacific

“Collectively these projects will provide substantial economic and environmental benefits for Pacific island countries.

“For example, New Zealand in partnership with the European Union is supporting the development of photovoltaic systems on the outer islands of Tuvalu and the Cook Islands. These systems will provide around 90 per cent of the islands’ power needs by early 2015. In Samoa, three solar projects will increase the amount of electricity generated from renewables by 4.5 percent, and reduce demand for imported diesel by around 3.9 million litres per year. 

“In a month’s time the United Nations Small Islands Developing States conference is taking place in Apia. Sustainable energy is one of the key themes of the conference, and this will provide an opportunity for Pacific countries to share their experience of shifting to renewable energy with other small island developing states,” Mr McCully says.

Mr McCully is in Palau for the 45th Pacific Islands Forum.

Related Documents
Pacific Energy Summit update report – August 2014: http://www.aid.govt.nz/sites/default/files/Energy%20Summit%20Update%20Report%202014.pdf