The Challenge Of Africa’s Small Island Developing States
With Africa’s remote “Small Island Developing States” – known as SIDS – agonizingly distant from the mainland, providing needed sustainable electric power can become an expensive challenge, particularly in light of their vulnerability to the effects of climate change.
“The vulnerability of these countries to climate change effects poses risks to their long-term sustainable development,” Hiro Morita-Lou, Chief of the UN’s SIDS Unit told AFKInsider. “These kinds of events are increasing in frequency and seriously affecting Africa’s Small Island Developing States.”
The United Nations designated 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States to highlight these developing islands and draw attention to the 3rd UN Conference on Small Island Developing States to be held in September with a focus on sustainable development.
In fact, national and regional preparatory meetings have been underway all year in preparation for the 2014 conference, including one recently held July 17-19 in the Seychelles.
Of the world’s fifty-two Small Island Developing States, six of these UN-recognized island nations are part of Africa: Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea Bissau, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe and Seychelles.
According to the UN, while these small island nations face “unique circumstances and vulnerabilities such as extreme weather conditions and isolation,” they are also at the forefront of finding innovative solutions to global challenges like climate change and developing sustainable energy.
Island Energy
Traditionally, electric power generation on these isolated islands has been dependent on diesel and other fossil fuels that have actually resulted in slowing local economic development.
According to the UN, more than 90 percent of energy consumption in SIDS is met through oil imports, costing up to 20 percent of their GDP and tying up vital capital that is detrimental to economic growth.
“Further, they are exposed to imported energy price risks and rising prices,” says Hiro Morita-Lou of the UN’s SIDS Unit.
These higher energy costs can also serve as a serious disincentive for foreign direct investment, further eroding the competitiveness of SIDS economies.
But a number of funding sources have emerged specifically to help these island utility operators replace diesel with renewable energy, reducing costs while maintaining electricity reliability.
The SIDS-DOCK partnership, an initiative launched in 2011 by the Alliance of Small Island States, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program, provides financial and technical support to scale-up the renewable energy efforts of these island countries and “help generate financial resources to address adaptation to climate change,” according to the Alliance of Small Island States.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is also supporting a systematic transition to renewable energy through their Small Island Developing States Lighthouses initiative, a program that received widespread support during a May International Renewable Energy Agency meeting in Abu Dhabi.
“Probably all the African SIDS will participate in the initiative through one or more partnerships in different program areas,” Gauri Singh, Director of Country Support and Partnerships for the International Renewable Energy Agency told AFKInsider.
The African Development Bank’s Strategy 2013-2022 is also playing a big role by supporting infrastructure and technology development through public-private partnerships.
SIDS Projects Increasing
Many of Africa’s Small Island Developing States are actually archipelagos made up of tiny, isolated and poorly connected islands. While populations are concentrated on the main islands, energy development is still a challenge for the foreign firms that have already stepped-up to help develop new projects.
“Several SIDS in Africa have interesting energy projects,” notes IRENA’s Gauri Singh.
One example is Seychelles, composed of 115 small islands which is the largest count of Africa’s six Small Island Developing States. In 2012, Seychelles committed to generate 15 percent of its electric power from renewable energy by 2030.
“They have put forward interesting options including shifting to renewable energy for electricity and electric cars,” the UN’s Hiro Morita-Lou told AFKInsider, noting that “Seychelles, in partnership with UAE, has built wind farms in recent years.”
In May, the Seychelles Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Corp signed an agreement with Germany’s Energynautics for a project to analyze the potential impact of various centralized and decentralized renewable energy sources. Energynautics will then present a diversification plan for the country which will include solar, wind, as well as conventional energy.
And they may need that extra energy.
“Seychelles has some low lying islands which will be subject to sea-level rise and drought, thus causing water shortage and a shift more to sea water desalination using energy,” says the UN’s Hiro Morita-Lou.
The main sectors of the Mauritius’ economy include tourism, textiles and financial services – all dependent on the availability of a reliable supply of electricity. In 2012, Mauritius committed to generate 35 percent or more of its electric power from renewable energy by 2025, but a lack of funding had slowed that development.
This changed in June when the Bambous solar photovoltaic power plant began operating, becoming the first utility-scale solar facility in the country. The 15-megawatt project was developed by Germany’s Tauber Solar Energietechnik and Mauritian firm Sarako, which was founded in 2013 to develop solar energy for the island nation. The solar panels were supplied by Germany’s Conecon Tianwei and Switzerland’s ABB provided the inverters and transformers.
The African Development Bank Group also approved a $116 million loan in June to the state owned electricity utility for refurbishing the oil-fired Saint Louis Power Plant south of the capital city Port Louis to stabilize the electricity supply of the main island – where around 97 percent of the country’s 1.3 million people reside – until more renewable energy projects can come on-line.
Another example is the Republic of Cape Verde. This African Small Island Developing State some 280 miles off of Senegal actually includes 10 islands and eight islets with 55 percent of the population living on the main Santiago Island. Cape Verde has seen an impressive economic expansion in recent years and graduated from the United Nations’ Least-Developed Country status in 2007. And the nation’s Vision 2030 development plan includes an objective of achieving 100 percent renewable energy use.
“Cape Verde stands out as a model for other SIDS in establishing an overall setting for successfully promoting renewable energy, which includes political commitment embodied in legislation and targets, opening of the power grid to competition by a variety of renewable energy providers, planning to evaluate the optimal mix of renewable generating options on the power grid, and capacity building to plan, build and operate the island’s electric grid with a higher share of renewable generation,” IRENA’s Gauri Singh told AFKInsider.
The “Island Paradox”
The distance from global markets and unique multi-island geography of the Small Island Developing States – the so-called “Island Paradox” – makes them extremely vulnerable to a wide range of economic shocks, such as instability of transported trade goods and threats such as rising sea levels, typhoons and tsunamis attributed to climate change. Because of this, these island nations continue to work toward energy independence to ease the impacts from some of these unpredictable shocks.
According to the UN’s Hiro Morita-Lou, the western African SIDS of Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe are already being affected by climate change.
“For example, Guinea Bissau registered a reduction and change in the rain patterns in the last 30 years, having serious effects in the health sector,” Hiro Morita-Lou told AFKInsider. “In addition, Mauritius had flash floods in March 2013 where two-hours of heavy rain flooded the capital. Seychelles also experienced unprecedented floods and landslides in January 2013.”
“We understand from climate experts and local stakeholders that the Seychelles are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels,” IRENA’s Gauri Singh told AFKInsider.
Future Investments
During the two-day “Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in Small Island Developing States” conference in May 2012,the island nations recognized that their dependence on fossil fuel imports was leaving them vulnerable and advanced a move towards sustainable energy through the Barbados Declaration. They also called on international development banks, the UN and the private sector to step up funding support for sustainable energy projects.
The upcoming 3rd UN Conference on Small Island Developing States September 1-4 in Samoa could just take the Small Island Developing States to the next level.
With the theme: “The sustainable development of small island developing states through genuine and durable partnerships,” the UN has already indicated there will be an announcement of over 200 new partnerships through the six multi-stakeholder partnership dialogues, held in parallel with the plenary meetings. Prior to the conference, stakeholder island countries had identified six critical areas where new global partnerships were needed to strengthen sustainable development, including: Climate change & Disaster Risk management; Oceans, Seas and Biodiversity; Water and Sanitation, Food Security and Waste Management; Sustainable energy; Social development in SIDS, Health and Non-communicable diseases, youth and women.
In addition, several pre-conference meetings will take place prior to the Conference, including the Renewable Energy Forum August 30 in Apia, Samoa. The Governments of New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, as well as IRENA and the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All are organizing this forum to explore how to build on new and existing development partnerships. The Forum will complement the multi-stakeholder partnership dialogue session on sustainable energy to be held during the Conference.
“UN Office for Sustainable Development is supporting African SIDS in shifting policies for energy from fossil fuel to renewable energy. The SIDS conference in Samoa will be a place to promote those opportunities to investors,” says the UN’s Hiro Morita-Lou.