An overview of climate-smart technologies in the pacific region

Abstract

The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are especially vulnerable to problems associated with climate change (CC), which is considered as one of the greatest risks to the people of the PICs. This poses a threat to the livelihoods, security and welfare of the people in the Pacific. PICs are considered to be one of the lowest contributors of factors contributing to climate change, yet they are the most vulnerable to the impacts of CC. Therefore, it becomes extremely important that PICs develop ways to adapt to and address the impacts of CC with climate intelligent technologies. Renewable energy (RE) has a large potential to displace emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from the burning of fossil fuels, and thereby to mitigate climate change. This paper gives an overview of climate intelligent technologies in the Pacific, and it goes into detail with some concrete examples. Although it is believed climate intelligent technologies cannot solve all the climate problems of PICs, it can help them to achieve a certain level of economic and social development that will be very beneficial for the Pacific. The present paper is based on the experiences gained by the “Small Developing Island Renewable Energy Knowledge and Technology Transfer Network (DIREKT)”, which is a cooperation scheme involving universities from Germany, Fiji, Mauritius, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago. The aim of this project is to strengthen science and technology capacity in the field of RE of a sample of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) small island developing states, by means of technology transfer, information exchange and networking. The project is funded by the ACP Science and Technology Programme, an EU programme for cooperation between the European Union and the ACP region.