On Friday, 12 July 2024, the PALM10 commemorative event, “Policy Discussion among Leaders of Pacific SIDS countries to Accelerate Green Transformation in the Pacific Region through Just Energy Transition” took place at the United Nations University in Tokyo.

The event was attended by His Excellency Mr. Shintaro Ito, Minister of Environment of Japan, representatives of the governments of Samoa and Vanuatu, Mr. Masanori Imai, Chairperson of the Toda Cooperation, and Dr. Mimi Nameki, Director at the Ministry of Environment, Japan. They exchanged views on various challenges and initiatives related to green transformation through energy transition in Japan and the Pacific countries.

In her opening remarks by video message, Ms. Kanni Wignaraja, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, stressed “The Pacific region requires partnerships that come with more innovation and financing”. 

She highlighted the project ‘Promoting Green Transformation in the Pacific Region towards Net-Zero Emissions and Climate-Resilient Development (Pacific Green Transformation Project)’, as an inspiring example of a partnership between UNDP and Japan since 2023. She emphasized these partnerships create more economic opportunities for youth in the Pacific Island nations. 

“Together we will contribute that part of resilient prosperity that all countries aspired to and which for the Pacific is the future.” Ms. Wignaraja added.

Following the opening remarks, Mr. Kentaro Tamura, Programme Director, Climate and Energy, Institute for Global, Environmental Strategies (IGES) delivered a keynote presentation outlining a roadmap with specific goals for the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree target. He mentioned that to achieve this target, we need socio-economic change originating from digital transformation (DX) and appealed the significance of breaking down the energy supply-demand boundaries.

During the panel discussion, each speaker introduced the climate actions in their respective countries and shared the main challenges they face, as well as future policies to move their steps forward.

Mr. Kalavini Maualaivao, representing Samoa, said that with the support from the Pacific Green Transformation Project, 76 Electric Vehicles (EVs), electric ports, and charging stations are being installed in Samoa where the transportation sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. This transition is expected to accelerate decarbonization while it also brings new challenges such as the need to raise public awareness for the EV era and build capacity within the country’s system to adopt new technology. This includes upskilling the community to operate charging stations by hosting workshops and expanding facilities.
 

In Vanuatu, due to the dispersed geography, inaccessibility to remote areas with scattered islands, and insufficient infrastructure development for energy transition, there have been major technical barriers, according to Mr. Antony Garae Liu, the government representative from Vanuatu.  Additionally, it’s a significant challenge for them to provide substantial upfront investments for renewable energy, and these financial burdens negatively affect long-term system operations, he added. It’s crucial to build up local capacity such as empowering local communities, upskilling, and educating technicians and engineers. Mr. Garae also brought an example of the implementation of pico-hydro power stations by the Pacific Green Transformation Project in Vanuatu, to demonstrate the importance of local involvement in management and maintaining ownership of community-based operations.

Dr. Nameki, Director for the International Cooperation for Decarbonization and Sustainable Infrastructure of the Environment Ministry, told that international cooperation is essential as Japan is aiming to simultaneously achieve three goals: ensuring stable energy supply, decarbonization, and economic growth. Japan has been accelerating discussions on green transformation and is working to promote the “Principles of High-integrity Carbon Markets” through international collaboration as well as capacity-building efforts for the member states, citing the “Paris Agreement Article 6: Implementation Partnership” launched under the Government of Japan’s leadership during COP27 as an example. Further, Dr. Nameki addressed an inter-city collaboration project between Kitakyushu City of Japan and Koror State of Palau, where brunches and tree waste generated from the tree polling at resort hotels are used as fuel to run boilers, contributing to decarbonization, and making good use of local resources.

As a pioneering effort in green energy, Toda Corporation’s floating offshore wind farm project off the coast of a remote island in Nagasaki Prefecture was shared by Mr. Masanori Imai, Chairperson and Representative Director of the company and Co-Representative of Japan Climate Leaders Partnership (JCLP).  Japan has a high potential for wind power capacity nationwide. However, commercialization of such potential would still require an intentional effort by the Government to present foresight and anticipatory planning upfront to inform the private sector’s decision-making to invest in wind-power markets and establish large-scale mass-production systems, he explained. As a representative of the business sector, Mr. Imai raised the issue of absence of a government-led guarantee system to mitigate losses of development expenses and other initial costs, which makes enterprises difficult to move their innovative practices forward.

Following the policy dialogues, Minister Ito delivered the closing remarks, referring to aspirational policies, that “In order to realize the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement, it is critically important for each country to steadily reduce greenhouse gas emission. Japan will continue to learn from and work together with Pacific Islands countries to contribute to the global decarbonization efforts”.

At the end of the event, Ms. Hideko Hadzialic, Director of the UNDP Representation Office in Tokyo, summed up the discussion.  “To achieve the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement, all the countries have to come together to reduce CO2 emission, and in this process, the private sector, political and community leaders, young people, citizens, research institutions around the world as well as all the countries need to gather the wisdom and act on the multilateralism. We will also need to leverage the impact investment from the private sector” she said, adding that “UNDP will continue to contribute to the efforts by the Pacific Islands countries, through the Pacific Green Transformation Project which has been implemented with the timely, valuable financial support from the Government of Japan, and follow up on the policy recommendations discussed today”.