PICs are in an advantageous position to transition toward
renewable energy: they have ample renewable energy sources and
important economic and environmental reasons to use these. PICs
also have the political will to realise this transition, as their
ambitious national goals and regional visions show.
For the PICs to reach these goals, however, they depend on
donor funding, which has been growing, especially for renewable
energy. This paper has taken a closer look at this energy-related
aid from 1990 through 2012. Using data from the OECD, it examined
in particular its development in three areas: Which energy technology
aid supported, whether it targeted grid or off-grid solutions,
and to what extent it supported ‘hardware' or ‘software’.
Although donors continue to provide significant funding for
fossil fuel, their emphasis has shifted towards renewable energy
over the recent years. Here, most aid supported hydro, and more
recently, solar power. A lot of aid went into grid solutions, though
again, we can see a recent focus on off-grid projects, with rural
electrification projects often using stand-alone solar home systems.
Finally, donors invested heavily in ‘hardware', that is, equipment,
infrastructure and distribution. Again, however, donors have started
to invest more in ‘software', in capacity-building programmes and
training, or policy-making.
Admittedly, the analysis here may underestimate spending on
renewable energy, on off-grid solutions or capacity-building, since
many project entries in the OECD creditor reporting system lack
informative project titles or descriptions, and are hence not
represented adequately in the dataset. Nonetheless, the analysis
offers some insights in how energy-related aid to the Pacific has
been spent, and provides evidence for a shift in donor thinking
toward renewable energy, including in remote rural areas and
including capacity-building. While much remains to be done, this
leaves us with hope for a successful transition to clean and secure
energy in the Pacific. Small island states, in the Pacific and elsewhere,
are well positioned to serve as examples and role models
on renewable energy for other countries, developing and devel