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Vanuatu faces green growth challenges

By Priya Chand
THE need for rural electrification is a major
issue faced by Vanuatu, with around 75
per cent of the population living in rural
areas without electrification.
In that regard, the island is establishing
a National Green Energy Fund (NGEF)
that it hopes will not only assist in meet-
ing the current Nationally Determined
Contribution (NDC), but will contribute
towards national development.
The fund is a joint initiative launched by
the Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI)
and the Vanuatu Government, which is a Solar electricity powers homes in rural Vanuatu. Inset: A graph shows renewable energy projrects in the country.
National Financing Vehicle (NFV) aimed ment and they need their economies to In addition, Vanuatu is also one of the
at accelerating financial flows to increase develop.” Pacific Island Countries (PICs) that has
electricity access in off-grid areas. The project has a focus on addressing secured a USD 23 million dollar grant for
So the NGEF will be a tool to imple- information gaps and priority needs of a Climate Information Services for Resilient
ment their National Energy Roadmap target beneficiaries at national, provincial Development project that has been ap-
(NER) that has already been developed in and local community levels across five sec- proved by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
conjunction with the World Bank and the tors: tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, The project will support ongoing resilient
GGGI. The NER, which is the overarching water and fisheries. development in Vanuatu through capacity
document for the energy sector includes In the lead up to achieving their NDCs, development for effective application of
targets for the 100 per cent renewable the table below shows Vanuatu’s a series climate information in development plan-
energy, and is in line and supporting the of renewable energy projects that are on- ning and implementation.
NDCs. going, proposed and completed.
The GGGI’s Pacific regional representa-
tive, Katerina Syngellakis said the NGEF
under the Paris Agreement. Similar to ‘
would focus on rural electrification,
renewable energy an energy efficiency
in furtherance of the country’s Nation-
ally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

Fiji, Vanuatu is aiming to approach 100 It will
per cent renewable energy and electricity contribute
access by 2030 that is meant to assist towards
the island in achieving their 30 per cent
gas emission reduction target for energy meeting
sector as a whole.
“It will definitely contribute towards NDC
meeting the NDC targets, but it also has targets ...
other aims because the NDCs are about
emission reduction, and all developing and also
countries also have to focus on their de-
velopment plan in their own economies has other
– so looking for a balance and looking aims ...
at whether there is a win-win situation,
where you have the emission reduction, because
but also get the core benefits of national
development,” explained Syngellakis. NDCs are
“So the NGEF wants to use renewable
energy for rural electrification, it wants to about
use energy efficiency for competitiveness emission
of businesses, and I think the same has to
apply in all islands and developing coun- reduction
tries where we have to get an economic
benefit, whilst reducing the emissions, ‘
because the countries are under develop-

10 Islands Business, October 2017