Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport (MCST) Blog

Mr. Wayne Raymi Kijiner is the  President of the Marshall Islands Student Association, University of the South Pacific, and  Undergraduate: BSc Double Major Electrical/Electronic Engineering & Physics   T here is a new but old technology making its way around the green energy discussions. I'm referring to Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). The technology has been understood since the 1800s, but it wasn't until the last 15 years that significant advancements were made and are currently being developed for improved designs.  What exactly is OTEC, and how does it work? In a nutshell, it is the use of the temperature difference between the surface and the deeper parts of the ocean to heat and cool a working fluid (usually ammonia).  Because the working fluid has a low boiling point, there is no need for a significant temperature difference; it should be at least 20°C. The working fluid is then heated using surface ocean water, causing it to turn into vapor ...

Atina Schutz is a law student at the University of the South Pacific who has been closely following the IMO negotiations  The shipping industry accounts for 3% of all CO2 emissions, and is on track to grow as high as between 50% and 250% in 2050. At the International Maritime Organization (IMO), discussions on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from ships are ongoing. While progress is slowly being made, the main thing people in the Pacific, and everywhere, should be watching is equity in the progress of GHG reduction debates.  In the global market, the Pacific is at a disadvantage. Our small economies, with distantly spread islands, are very far from the global market, which is heavily concentrated in the Global North. When it is time to decarbonize, that disadvantage will be exacerbated. As decarbonization is a highly costly and technical process, the cost will fall on governments already struggling to provide other equally important services to their citizens. ...

  Dr Tristan Smith is the Associate Professor at University College of London Energy Institute.  The hard work and vocal leadership of Fiji and a number of Pacific countries has, once again, enabled major progress in climate negotiations.  COP 26 started, just under a month ago, with the vast majority of countries, representing the majority of global Gas House Gas (GHG )emissions, signed up to ‘net zero’ targets. Most commonly targeting their national economies to emit net zero GHG by 2050.  For the efforts made to achieve those targets not to be in vain, they need two international transport sectors, shipping and aviation, that most often lie outside of national GHG reduction commitments, to step up to commit to similar.  In 2018, in direct response to calls initially made in 2015 by the late Tony deBrum, Foreign Minister to the Marshall Islands, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted its first commitment to an absolute reduction in GHG emis...

  Maria Sahib is a consultant with the Micronesia Centre for Sustainable Sea Transport In my last article many moons ago in the Fiji Sun dailies, I talked about the importance of addressing carbon emissions from fishing vessels at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). I also raised pertinent questions about which UN body would take responsibility for decarbonising the fishing industry. In this article, however, the supply chain issues of fish products will be discussed and the significance of transportation in the supply chain. According to UNCTAD [1]  (2016), trade in marine products and services can create opportunities for economic growth, export diversification, and new investments including sustainable fishing and aquaculture, sustainable and resilient marine transport and logistic services, and in links with maritime and coastal tourism. Global trade is only possible through the transport sector and is largely dependent on the shipping industry.    By ...

What will changing population patterns mean for future maritime connectivity costs, already the highest in the world?                             Andrew Irvin, Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport. The Pacific Shipping Cost Paradox Our shipping cost, per tonne/nautical mile, is the highest in the world, and serves as a primary barrier to progress across UN Sustainable Development Goals. Pacific populations are in flux, with accelerating internal migration from outer islands to urban centers. Internationally, shipping is embarking on a decarbonisation agenda. Shipping in the Pacific needs to understand these future changes when planning today. Our transport needs in 2050 will likely be quite different from what they are in 2020. For Pacific Islands, the phenomenon of urban drift is taken to an extreme, unmatched elsewhere around the globe, though the remote nations of the Pacific may not be what comes ...

  Can Fiji turn Attention to Retention? Andrew Irvin, Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport, andrew.irvin@usp.ac.fj As Fiji focuses on the future of its shipping sector, reflection on its past is a crucial undertaking. While in recent years, Fiji has revived its sailing heritage and enjoys an active sailing and paddling community alongside the continued presence of small-scale shipbuilding and larger dry-docking/repair operations, the capacity to independently meet the needs of domestic shipping operations has fallen by the wayside. Understanding what is required to accommodate the existing needs across the industry reveals that the public enterprise reform [1] undertaken thirty years ago offers only a partial blueprint for restoration of this capacity. It was not only a stripping of material assets that took place. Fiji has now endured three decades of human resource capacity loss as citizens seek education and employment opportunities abroad. In 1994, a few years aft...

by Alison Newell, Technical Advisor to MCST and Director Sustainable Sea Transport  This article was written a year ago before appearing in this blog. Turning the tide: what do we do about small boats and the crucial role they play in Fiji’s domestic maritime fleet?   There has been a lot of discussion in recent weeks about the allocation of R&D funding to support the decarbonisation of large ships as part of the covid-19 economic stimulus responses around the world. Countries such as Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Germany and others have announced multi-million dollar financing packages for zero-emissions or low-carbon vessel design and trials (see for example the UK Government’s recent announcement of £400m for a Belfast-based project to develop zero emission, high-speed ferries https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4017015/belfast-zero-emission-ferry-project-gbp400m-uk-government-funding-winners ).   There has also been discussion on how Fiji could position itself as...

Peter Nuttall Micronesia Centre for Sustainable Transport This article was written a year before appearing on this blogsite. As we begin a new decade, the Sun is asking what 2020 heralds for Fiji’s shipping future? Shipping, especially our domestic sector, is facing major challenges. We are a maritime nation. Our fleet of commercial vessels - from outboard-driven village fibers, barges, landing craft, tourist vessels, to large passenger/cargo ferries - is the very lifeline connecting our more than 300 islands. Like other Pacific Islands states, we have long shipping routes, sometimes hundreds of nautical miles, to service relatively small communities. It has always been a relatively high-risk business and margins, especially for our remote and most vulnerable communities, are thin. High fuel prices, an often-aged fleet and a large scattered infrastructural footprint, have always presented major challenges to both government and private sector operators alike. There are major systemic u...

Dr. Peter Nuttall  Micronesian Centre for Sustainable Transport.     This article was published exactly one year ago since appearing on this blogsite. By the time this goes to print, Severe Tropical Cyclone Harold is hopefully situated well to the south of Fiji. But TC Harold has already taken a toll in human life and structural damage in the Solomon Islands and, as I write, is poised to strengthen to Category 5 as it slams into Vanuatu. The heartbreaking news of the maritime disaster that has happened in the Solomon’s this week, with at least two vessels washed ashore and some 28 passengers washed off an inter-island ferry (MV Taimareho), overcrowded with 738 villagers fleeing COVID19 is a stark reminder of how vulnerable our aged and over-stretched domestic shipping services are in the Pacific. It also highlights how quickly stretched our national capacity is when countries are suddenly faced with not one, but two simultaneous national disasters. Like most countrie...

  Safeguarding Shipping Service in Fiji Andrew Irvin, Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport,  andrew.irvin@usp.ac.fj A stir was caused this past weekend when Goundar Shipping’s social media account circulated an announcement it would be immediately ceasing its operations around the country [1] .  Though on Monday, Goundar Shipping subsequently announced the social media account was hacked, and it has no intention to discontinue its operations in Fiji [2] , the flurry of responses around the ramifications for domestic shipping of Goundar Shipping’s exit from the sector raises a number of questions worth answering in advance of any domestic shipping industry upheaval of similar scale. As mentioned in the most recent column on COVID-19’s impacts on the economy, domestic shipping is taking a significant hit due to the restrictions on passenger travel beyond Viti Levu.  Sector-Wide Challenges Beyond sector-wide challenges, Goundar Shipping has been embroiled in inv...