Address to the Pacific Energy Summit

On behalf of the New Zealand Government, I welcome our international guests to Auckland, and to our wonderful country. It is a pleasure to have you here.

The New Zealand Government is pleased to be working with our co-hosts in the European Union, and our Summit sponsors from the World Bank, The Asian Development Bank, and AusAID, to make this important event happen.

It is very timely.

The Pacific Energy Summit is giving communities in the Pacific a platform to work with development partners to achieve their energy goals.

Importantly, that process is being driven by energy roadmaps developed by those communities themselves.

It is also giving those same communities an opportunity to establish partnerships with companies in the private sector, and to plug into their resources and expertise.

This will help generate tangible project investments that reduce reliance on fossil fuel in the Pacific.

We are pleased to support Pacific Island countries in achieving their energy goals.

We’ve already seen the benefits through the partnership between the New Zealand Government, the people of Tokelau, and an innovative Kiwi company called PowerSmart, a company based in my own electorate of Tauranga.

The solar project they’ve created together with Tokelau is the biggest off-grid solar power system in the world. Tokelau now gets over 95% of its electricity from emissions-free solar power.

They’re saving the cost of getting 1000 barrels of diesel up to the atolls, freeing up money that can be better spent developing resilient and healthy communities.

Many Pacific Island governments have ambitious targets for renewable energy.

This is something we have in common.

A major area of focus of the New Zealand Energy Strategy 2011-2021 is to further develop our renewable energy resources. As part of this, we have an ambitious target for 90 per cent of our electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2025.

For now, over 70 per cent of our electricity generation is from renewable energy – particularly hydro and geothermal and, increasingly, wind.

New Zealand has experience in small scale renewable technologies in our rural areas.

We can offer our Pacific partners expertise in design, installation, operation and in maintenance services.

Moving beyond the supply-side, it’s good to see another core theme of this Pacific Energy Summit is energy efficiency.

Here in New Zealand, we see energy efficiency improvements as critical to our energy future. This doesn’t only contribute to our energy security. It also yields productivity improvements, economic growth, and higher living standards, as well as helping lower our greenhouse gas emissions.

Today we will hear a range of global perspectives, including from the head of the UN Convention on Climate Change.

New Zealand is taking action on climate change with a firm eye on the shape of the future climate agreement.

New Zealand shares the Pacific view that the new climate change agreement must be ambitious and applicable to all countries, according to their respective capabilities.

An effective agreement will need both broad participation and ambitious action. That in turn will require some flexibility and willingness to explore new ideas.

With this in mind, we have decided that our next emissions reduction commitment will be under the UN Framework Convention rather than the Kyoto Protocol. We’ve done this because an agreement that covers only 13 per cent of global emissions is not – and never can be – an effective way to meet our two degree goal.

It is our past, for some it is our present – but it is not our collective future.

This decision makes no difference to New Zealand’s efforts to tackle the challenge of climate change.

We will meet our target for the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. We remain a Party to the Kyoto Protocol, and will apply its broad framework of rules to our emissions reduction commitment.

This year Cabinet will decide a firm emissions target under the UN Framework Convention for 2013 and beyond.

Our domestic policy is firmly in place, and we have moved to strengthen the environmental integrity of our domestic Emissions Trading Scheme.

We are actively exploring other initiatives that can help reduce emissions and increase productivity. We founded, and continue to invest in, the Global Research Alliance for Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.

We recognise that impacts of climate change will be most keenly felt here in our region, the Pacific.

We understand that, and that’s part of the reason why this Government remains committed to the provision of climate finance to the Pacific.

We delivered on our promise of $30 million of fast start finance each year from 2010–2012.

We’re committed to continuing at similar levels, and with a focus on renewable energy in the Pacific, we continue to support projects such as the one in Tokelau and similar projects in the Cook Islands and Tonga.

Addressing climate change presents the biggest opportunity that the renewable energy and clean-tech sector will ever see.

It is an integral part of the solution.

And this Summit offers the chance to achieve a quantum leap forward in implementing efficient, affordable, clean energy in the Pacific.

As I said at the beginning, this event, and your participation in it are very timely.

We need to transform our global energy economy.

This Summit offers a unique opportunity to hear and learn from some of the world’s leading experts in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Thank you for inviting me to take part.