As the urgency surrounding climate change mitigation strategies increases and the significance of renewable energy sources grows on a global scale, many Pacific Island countries edge closer to irreparable damage to their delicate ecosystems.
In Fiji, the dire circumstances have been addressed by the enactment of acts of Parliament, policies, regulations, and strategic plans. On paper, Fiji appears to be a Pacific leader in climate change mitigation and green energy solutions, but some have questioned the seemingly slow uptake of renewable energy projects on the ground.
Energy Fiji Limited (EFL), Fiji’s national energy supplier, has announced a fair few major renewable energy projects over the past few years, most recently collaborations with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank as partner on a project for a renewable energy reliant Vanua Levu, and as transaction advisor for renewable energy goals, respectively.
The push towards renewable energy, however, is demonstrably best done as a collaborative effort.
While many private sector renewable energy projects have been conceived, and some announced, over the past 10 years, few have reached completion.
CEO of the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association, Fantasha Lockington, has long been vocal on the intentions of the tourism industry to support green projects. While several hotels and resorts have successfully launched climate-friendly activities and sustainable practices, rarely has any tourism industry stakeholder been able to penetrate the renewable energy market.
In a recent interview with Islands Business, Lockington shared her concerns regarding preferential policies and outdated procedures as inhibitors to private sector involvement in renewable energy.
“Most of it has to do with there being no clarity on how off-the-grid connections take place and [the Electricity Act of 2017] covers only the usual commercial business operations,” Lockington said, “which are not often inclusive of tourism’s specific needs and the direction it is moving to as an industry for sustainability.
“As such, the industry often, rightly, feels that it is moving in one direction—very quickly—because of the need to compete at a global level; while Fiji’s policies that impact it are still stuck in the 1960s or earlier, when these policies were first enacted,” she said.
“Industry stakeholders are increasingly frustrated by approval processes that no longer make sense, do not provide for technological advances or do not consider tourism-specific operations.”
The Electricity Act of 2017 places a considerable amount of power in the hands of Energy Fiji Limited, despite its goal to “promote competition in the electricity industry”.
Section 16 of the Act states that, “where a person intends to self-supply, unless such self-supply was occurring before the commencement date, that person must provide details of the self-supply to the public electricity supplier and should the public electricity supplier decide that the public electricity supplier is able to provide the generation and supply at the price and terms legitimately proven as possible by the person, the public electricity supplier may elect to supply on such terms.”
It goes on to further clarify that should the public electricity supplier, in the case of Fiji this is EFL, elect to supply under the above subsection, the private entity “must not self-supply”.
This presents challenges for private sector renewable energy projects, few of which would have the connections and resources to provide at a lower cost than the national supplier.
Lockington raised additional concerns regarding Fiji’s Climate Change Act of 2021.
“In the Climate Change Act, sustainability (that includes better waste management solutions, recycling &, environment protection), renewable energy options and future-fit planning are—as far as we are concerned—currently not being addressed with the resources needed, in the capacity demanded, or with the speed that is recognised must be in place to address the many development and investment plans already announced,” Lockington said.
The Climate Change Act, while not addressing the tourism industry in particular, did make at least one significant provision for private sector hopefuls in the renewable energy market; the possibility of a private sector advisory committee.
According to the Act, the Minister under whom the climate change ministry falls “may (this was later amended to “must”) establish a private sector advisory committee.” Among the purposes of which are “promoting dialogue with the private sector on the implementation of the Act”, and “promoting and creating an enabling environment for public private partnerships that are consistent with achieving the objectives and principles of this Act”.
Despite this Act being gazetted in 2021, the advisory committee is yet to make any significant impact and it appears the private sector must continue advocating for itself. The Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association continues to advocate for hotel operators in a bid to streamline approval processes and avoid delays, as several hotel operators have plans for major renewable projects.
“We have consistently raised our concerns that these plans will be delayed and will not be able to be delivered within their expected timeframes,” Lockington said. “And this is even before we address Fiji’s other most significant challenge – and that is ensuring we can access the required skilled labour we will need to bring these plans to the construction stage.
“That same skills access challenge is another reason it is taking us so long to address the outdated policies and Acts – we lack significant resources to speed up the needed amendments, as well as the education and awareness they require to ensure people are consulted across the changes required.
“We have some concerns – many of which have eventually been addressed, but they take a very long time to get sorted and development plans get stretched out by six months to a year as a consequence,” she said. While Fiji’s Climate Change Act is seen as a commendable step in the right direction, without considerations towards streamlining bureaucratic processes, the country risks losing opportunities for renewable energy production in one of its most economically viable sectors.
