This Technology Transfer Advances Tonga's
- Nationally Determined Contribution to "improve energy efficiency through reduction of electricity line losses to 9 percent by 2020 (from a baseline of 18 percent in 2010)" and to work towards achieving its emission reduction targets for the transport, agriculture, waste and forest industry.
Context
Tonga is amongst the small island states that are encountering the need to balance the national requirements of meeting the nation’s energy needs and to reduce Tonga’s GHG emissions in order to tackle climate change impacts. Such dilemma permit the government to deduce the best social, environmental and economic options to tackle these issues while ensuring a sustainable development is still achieved.
Like any small Pacific island states, Tonga depends entirely on imported fossil fuel for its energy necessity. Any increases or disruptions to the global cost of oil will intricate Tonga’s economy and development. To tackle any unprecedented issue arise from imported oil and climate change impacts, the Tongan government developed a national target in 2012, which is to achieve 50% of its electricity generation from renewable energy by 2020. To date, Tonga has invested millions of donor funds in construction of off-grid and on-grid solar PV systems. These investments contribute up to 7% of the target while addition renewable energy projects are currently under development and it is anticipated to contribute to meeting target by 2020.
The challenge that the Energy Department recently identified is that a substantial resource has been committed to increasing the renewable energy generation mix in Tonga but there are lacks of energy efficiency development. At first, it may appear that energy efficiency is a contradictory approach between the use of less energy and the need to meet the energy need of the nation. However, this is not the case anymore as Tonga realized that energy efficiency initiatives with supported policies/strategies are the cheapest and reliable initiatives for saving energy and money and reducing our GHG emissions. Hence, the Energy Department is seeking CTCN to develop a Tonga Energy Efficiency Master Plan with achievable EE and GHG mitigation targets to ensure the transition to an energy efficient future for Tonga.
Assistance Requested
This projects looks at developing Tonga Energy Efficiency Master plan to help reduce the energy use and decrease emissions in buildings, transportation, power and other relevant cross cutting sectors. Specifically, this technical assistance includes the following activities:
- Conduct survey, data collection and baseline study
- Develop EE and GHG mitigation targets
- Conduct need assessment on potential EE activities for Energy Sector (Power, Transport and Building)
- Conduct Capacity Development and Training for Energy Staff
Relevant Technologies and Approaches
- Efficient lighting
- Appliance standards
- Technology Needs Assessment
- Energy planning
Expected Benefits
- Development of a more organised and clear pathway for Tonga to reduce its GHG emissions and increase energy saving from all sectors
- Improve the Energy Efficiency standards of technologies and applications in Tonga through the development of Energy Efficiency Standards for energy services, appliances, technologies, buildings and vehicles.
- Banned energy inefficient technologies import to Tonga
- Alleviate the fragmentation, uncertainty and ambiguity of authority within the EE sector and assigned the key authority to the Energy Department
- Allow the Energy Department to conduct its role as the key agency for the Energy sector by ensuring that all EE related line ministries are conducting their role accordingly and in due diligence manner
- Reduction of GHG emissions and increasing the investment in low carbon technologies
- Increase economic development through investment on low carbon technologies and improving of energy intensity and savings
- Improve social wellbeing and livelihood through increase access to affordable, clean, modern and secured energy sources.
- Increase resilient infrastructures constructed to tackle climate change impacts based on environmental, sustainable and energy efficient standards and design.
