Brussels, 22/04/2014 (Agence Europe) Andris Piebalgs, the European Commissioner for Development, and Murray McCully, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, will be conducting a joint mission in the Pacific from 23 to 27 April to reinforce their cooperation with this region, in the field of energy and renewable energies. Piebalgs will then fly off to Papua New Guinea (28-30 April), where he will meet the government authorities to discuss the priorities and challenges of future cooperation between the EU and this ACP State, and launch two development projects for a total of €60 million.
“Energy is crucial for education, health, growth, tourism and even for water supply. Renewable energy is a country's main route towards growth and development”, Commissioner Piebalgs said on Monday. The small island states of the Pacific are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which is hindering their development, and the extremely high cost of fossil fuels for these extremely remote countries adds to their problems.
In Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Cook Islands, the Commissioner and the New Zealand Minister will visit several renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, several of which have been co-funded by New Zealand and the EU.
These projects include: solar panels to produce electricity in three remote islands of Tuvalu (€2.5 million); the construction of six photovoltaic power stations in the region, co-funded with the Asian Development Bank; a project giving populations access to an environmentally friendly source of building material which protects the vulnerable shoreline from damage caused by mineral aggregates (€5.2 million); a laboratory in Kiribati dedicated to monitoring environmental diseases (€500,000).
These projects represent the first fruit borne by the EU/New Zealand partnership in the Pacific, which was created at the Pacific Summit on Energy of Auckland (New Zealand) in March 2013. The aim is to bring the nations of the Pacific closer to the target of producing 50% of their electricity from renewable sources.
In Papua New Guinea, Piebalgs will sign a human resources development project (€26 million) based on the provision of technical assistance and professional education, and a rural economic development project (in excess of €32 million). (AN)