By Tevita Motulalo*
The Kingdom of Tonga, like many Pacific Islands Countries, was severely hit by the fuel price spike of 2008. Rather than implement a patchwork of work-arounds, it decided to do a complete, open and honest assessment of its energy systems, including supply, governance, management, generational, distribution storage, etc. Once its strengths and weaknesses were broadly known, it then designed a complete plan (the TERM) that had the goal of reducing diesel imports by 50% by 2020 mostly through a combination of efficiencies and renewable energies.
- Topics
- Energy
Opinion
The Pacific is growing in its geostrategic value to global power projections. Having the region vulnerable to economic collapse—driven by acute energy deficiency and price volatility—is to entertain competition and conflict. This invites instability in a region whose control is central and inimical to global power relationships, especially between East and West.
On September 27th, in New York City, on the sidelines of the 68th United Nations General Assembly, eleven Pacific islands leaders signed a “pivotal” declaration in front of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The declaration called for the establishment of a Pacific Regional Data Repository (PRDR). That dry language makes it easy to miss that the declaration was groundbreaking in several ways. To understand why, requires going back a few years to the founding of the Tonga Energy Road Map (TERM).
The Kingdom of Tonga, like many Pacific Islands Countries, was severely hit by the fuel price spike of 2008. Rather than implement a patchwork of work-arounds, it decided to do a complete, open and honest assessment of its energy systems, including supply, governance, management, generational, distribution storage, etc. Once its strengths and weaknesses were broadly known, it then designed a complete plan (the TERM) that had the goal of reducing diesel imports by 50% by 2020 mostly through a combination of efficiencies and renewable energies.
Development partners were invited to engage with the TERM and, in another innovation, rather than have the Tongan government negotiate with each development partner separately, the World Bank coordinated the development partner inputs, ensuring that they all met the transparency and open bidding standards of the bank.
As the TERM took shape, other Pacific Islands Countries wanted to learn more about it and so, in March 2013, in another groundbreaking move, Tonga hosted the Pacific Leaders Energy Summit (PLES).
The PLES was unusual in that it was held in a Pacific island country, for Pacific islands leaders. While New Zealand Foreign Minister McCully attended some of the events, it was the eight Pacific leaders who ran the show.
At the PLES, the Pacific islands leaders realised they have a lot to learn from each others’ successes, challenges and failures in the energy sector, and that open and honest information sharing could greatly help all their economies.
As Tonga Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakano said at the ceremony in New York: “One of the outcomes of the [PLES] identified the greatest obstacle to energy reformation in the Pacific, which is the lack of project information and sharing of good practices as well as learning from not so good practices.”
And so was born the idea of a creating a centralised location where all data relating to the energy sector in the Pacific could be stored and available for consultation, allowing energy planners and policymakers to make informed and evidence-based decisions.
Tuvalu could learn from Tonga’s research on solar. Samoa could learn about microgrids from Fiji. Kiribati could see what contracts on wind had been signed. Pacific Islands Countries could all learn from each other’s innovations and mistakes, making the whole region stronger through lower energy prices and more resilient energy systems. Everyone would win, except the consultants who charged $1000 a day to write the same report for Nauru they had already written for Vanuatu.
The idea for the PRDR was reinforced at the Asia Pacific Energy Forum (APEF), organised by UN-ESCAP, held Russia in May 2013. The APEF pledged to support the Pacific Islands Countries in “establishing a framework for acquiring energy data and information, such as national energy plans, roadmaps, key baseline data, statistics and project documents, to bridge the knowledge gap and apply lessons learned, to improve coordination between all partners and to better measure achievement”.
UN-ESCAP supported the idea of the PRDR, especially as it was a perfect fit with the declaration that 2014?2024 was the United Nation’s Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All). The momentum for the PRDR continued at the Majuro Pacific Islands Leaders Forum where leaders again declared their support for “the initiative by Tonga to establish a Pacific Regional Data Repository for Sustainable Energy for All, SE4All”.
And so, in an incredibly short time by UN standards, last month eleven Pacific leaders stood in front of Ban Ki-moon, and handed over a signed declaration on a Pacific Regional Data Repository.
In handing over the declaration, Tongan Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakano said this would help the Pacific move forward by dealing with: “the lack of project information, and sharing of good practices as well as learning from not so good practices.”
The PRDR will be hosted in the Pacific with the assistance of UN-ESCAP and other development partners. In the words of Ban Ki-moon: “This declaration is a powerful message to the world that the Pacific region is stepping up to the challenge. It is a testament to your leadership. You can count on the United Nations — on me personally, as well as my Special Representative, Mr. Kandeh Yumkella — to continue to support your efforts towards Sustainable Energy for All.”
The PRDR will be officially launched at the United Nations SIDS Conference to be held in Apia 2014. It will be a milestone in regional cooperation, initiated, created, endorsed and to be run by Pacific Islands Countries for Pacific Islands Countries. The repository is about sharing information and experiences, in devising and implementingenergy policies of Pacific governments.
It has the potential to reshape the relationship between the Pacific and its partners. Other than keeping with UN’s SE4All, the Pacific is one of those regions whose development, sustainability for its peoples, and even stability, is underpinned by access to affordable energy. Without which, it is a losing battle of growing indebtedness and survival, impeding the region’s ability to positively contribute to the world. Pragmatic efforts to stave off this trend are led by the Pacific nations themselves and need acknowledgement at home, the region, and beyond.
• Tevita Motulalo is an MSc Graduate in Geopolitics and International Relations from Manipal University, India, and a Researcher at Gateway House, a foreign policy think thank in Mumbai. He is currently a lecturer at the Tonga Institute of Higher Education's Media and Journalism Diploma programme.
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