ACCORDING to recent research from the Micronesian Centre for Sustainable Transport, over $700 million in ships have been gifted to Pacific Island nations over the last 10 years.
Despite these massive investments, nearly all of these donated vessels rely on diesel engines, with a single ship currently operating as a low-carbon alternative.
This reliance on traditional fuels persists because many regional countries lack the financial resources to purchase more efficient technologies, forcing them to depend on international donors who have been slow to prioritise green technologies.
To address this, experts suggest implementing a regional policy requiring all new arrivals to be significantly more fuel-efficient than the older ships they replace.
By tracking these trends in a new comprehensive database, the organisation aims to help the region meet its ambitious decarbonization targets by 2050.
“We’ve been tracking a number of shipping projects across the Pacific, but this is the first time we’ve tried to build a comprehensive database of all known investments across the sector,” said Dr Peter Nuttall, Scientific Advisor at the Marshall Islands government research centre.
“We are still in the construction phase of the database; there is a lack of standardised reporting and multiple different agencies involved. But the preliminary results show that more than 95 per cent of all new domestic ship deployments are diesel powered with little or no design consideration to achieving maximum fuel efficiency.”
The Marshall Islands and Fiji have led by example, setting reduction targets of 40 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2050, conditional on access to appropriate finance. But support and uptake from the region’s partners have been slow in coming for this hard-to-abate sector.
“Initial operational results from the SV Juren Ae prototype vessel indicate savings of over 60 per cent are achievable using available mature technologies today,” said Nuttal
“If this had been applied to the design of the new Tuvaluan ship, the $30m ADB-funded MV Manu Sina, it would have significantly reduced Tuvalu’s national emissions.
“A regional policy endorsed by all Pacific Island States for all new vessels donated to the Pacific to be 40 per cent more efficient than the ships they are replacing would be the fastest and least costly measure to advance domestic shipping.”
