Following SIDS4, small islands’ energy transition gains stronger momentum at Global Renewables Summit.
Improved permitting processes and legal frameworks can accelerate implementation of much needed solutions for small islands’ security, resilience, and sustainable growth. With enormous untapped potential, these vulnerable communities can become renewable energy superpowers while catalysing global change.
This was a crucial outcome of the New York Climate Week side event “Small Islands Leading the Way Towards 100% Renewables”, co-organised by Greening the Islands (GTI) Foundation and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) on September 23.
The session, a partner event to the Global Renewables Summit, featured the presentation of a new set of tailored recommendations to accelerate the clean energy transition of small islands through implementing fast and fair permitting by the Global Renewables Alliance (GRA) and GTI Foundation.
“The ABAS delivered a strong political mandate that the international community must now take forward. The success of the agenda will depend on strong partnerships. I am pleased that DESA is partnering with Greening the Islands Foundation, to support the energy transition in SIDS and deliver a more resilient and prosperous future,” said Sai Navoti, Chief of the SIDS Unit in UN DESA.
“Frontrunner islands are developing ambitious decarbonisation roadmaps, but their need for support on financing and implementation remains momentous. As we continue to do through the cooperation with the UN DESA, we are committed to involving all sectors of society to help obtain concrete results, and we encourage all island governments and authorities to implement the recommendations we developed with GRA for faster implementation of much-needed solutions,” said Gianni Chianetta, Chair of GTI Foundation. “The case studies we are developing demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of achieving 100% RES in a relatively short timeframe, and they show that islands can represent an important market for renewables and related projects, making them more attractive for large public and private investments. We estimate around 200 GW potential capacity to be installed in SIDS and at least 1TW on all islands of the world”, Chianetta added.
The event followed GTI Foundation’s high-level engagements and a joint event with UNDESA at the SIDS4 Conference – with its outcome document Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) reinforcing the central role of renewable energy for islands’ resilient prosperity – and marked one year since the launch of the 100% RES Islands Initiative at Blue Planet Alliance’s Climate Talks during Ney York Climate Week 2023.
For small islands worldwide, which suffer existential threats from the rapidly accelerating impacts of climate change, accelerating the energy transition stands as a vital priority in the next decisive decade, paramount for their energy security as well as economy-wide decarbonisation and revitalisation through job creation, empowerment of local value chains, and circularity.
These vulnerable communities have a particular need for streamlined and effective permitting process, as they generally handle protected areas, little available land, and limited access to finance. Complex authorisation processes entail higher costs and risks of losing financing opportunities. At the same time, specific regulatory aspects still act as barriers to renewable power generation.
Transparent policies, stable regulatory frameworks, community engagement, guarantee mechanisms, and public-private partnerships are among the gamechanger elements identified to attract more investments de-risking island projects and advance insular economies and societies towards energy security and resilience while originating replicable models for 100% renewables.
During the event, the Greek island of Chios was announced joining the 100% RES Islands Initiative, thanks to the cooperation with DAFNI, the Network of Sustainable Greek Islands. Chios is the fifth largest Greek island and the tenth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with a population of 50k people, non-interconnected and currently powered through fossil fuels. With its significant potential of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal sources, it aspires to become a 100% renewable island.
The GTI Foundation 100% RES Islands Initiative builds on a vision of small islands as ideal testbeds for showcasing the technical and economic feasibility of transitioning to fully renewable energy systems, in the context of a global goal of tripling renewable capacity by 2030.
Among key actions, the GRA-GTI recommendations include: defining clear timelines and maximum lead times; digitising permitting processes; assigning priority status to nexus-smart and resilience projects; implementing energy communities and collective self- consumption regulations; integrating RES planning with agriculture, water, environment, transportation, and waste management; upgrading the power network and integrating energy storage; supporting smart grids and demand-response and control systems, mapping usable spaces and implementing strategic spatial planning for RES including offshore; establishing dedicated coordination units for energy transition; performing regular monitoring, exploiting existing mechanisms; integrating energy transition in resource and resilience strategies and disaster risk management; and enhancing energy efficiency across all sectors.
On the pathway to COP 29, where GTI Foundation is planning a high-level event in the Blue zone, the GTI Observatory Summit will take place in Curaçao on October 10-11, 2024. The summit will focus on how to scale up globally the 100% RES Islands Initiative across policy, technology, finance, encompassing all end-use sectors and integrating the efforts of global leaders. The two-days event will feature a first-of-its-kind workshop involving key local actors and international stakeholders to deep dive the implementation of Curaçao’s roadmap to 100% renewable power assessing all requirements to make it a reality.
