Government Managing Sustainable Energy

26th June 2019 – The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment through the Renewable Energy Division had successfully facilitated a National Renewable Energy Workshop with the theme “Working together in managing sustainable energy for Samoa.” The objective was to bring together all stakeholders of the Energy Sector to share information and to open a platform for further developments within the sector. The participants included representatives from Government Ministries and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs); Scientific Research of Samoa (SROS), Office of the Regulator (OOTR), Land Transport Authority (LTA), Samoa Trust Estate Corporation ( STEC), Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry for Revenue (MfR), Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure (MWTI), Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF), Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Labor (MCIL) and the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MNRE).
Tofa Ulu Bismarck Crawley – MNRE CEO, had delivered his keynote and stated “Information sharing is the key to better development! It is a time-saver and is definitely more financially & economically efficient! With information sharing, we are able to make effective decisions and deliver better results that assist all our Energy partners in meeting our goals towards achieving a more manageable and more sustainable energy system for Samoa.”

The workshop allowed all stakeholders to present to the sector information pertaining to their roles and responsibilities as well as current developments undertaken by each. It was expected from this workshop to have all participants gather necessary information to improve their services through their system networks; and to assess the developments of Renewable Energy projects thus far.

Ms Vanda Faasoa Chan Ting

“It is important that all of the Energy Sector personnel understands the importance of their duties and responsibilities in achieving these goals. Whether you’re an Officer collecting data, a Senior Officer analyzing data; or an ACEO representing Samoa at international forums, each of the responsibilities given to you contributes to your respective institutional plans and to our energy sector plan which are in line with the Strategy for the Development of Samoa.. All of our achievements and challenges faced are crucial for decision making that directly affects the development of sustainable energy in Samoa…” commented Ms Vanda Chan Ting – ACEO Renewable Energy Division MNRE.

The current way forward for Renewable Energy in Samoa is adopting Mitigation strategies which will improve our use and management of energy. These include the current target goal for our electricity sector ‘100% of electricity generated from Renewable Energy sources,’ and also actions on implementing the strategies planned out in our ‘Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions’ which allows our transport sector to invest in more energy-efficient and sustainable transportation. In addition to mitigating the impacts of Climate change, the sector had also adopted the Energy Efficiency Act 2017 which regulates electrical appliances being imported into the country such as refrigerators, lights and air-conditioning units.

We acknowledge our development partners; AusAid, Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) for supporting the National Workshop towards the better management of sustainable energy in Samoa.

Kitiona Tugaga of MAF presenting on Agricultural feedstock