Integrated Sustainability Analysis
@ The University of Sydney

Sustainable Islands project at the University of Sydney

The Sustainable Islands project of the ISA team at the University of Sydney is aimed at identifying the sustainability situation on 3 small, self-governed, and remote Pacific islands – Yap, Niue, and Norfolk (see map at the bottom of this page).

The project is coordinated by Prof Manfred Lenzen, leader of Sydney University's ISA team. The project participants are Dr Murukesan Krishnapillai of the College of Micronesia-FSM from Yap Campus in the Federated States of Micronesia, Deveraux Talagi from the Premiers Office of the Niue Government, and Nicole Diatloff from EcoNorfolk Foundation.

Regarding sustainability, most island communities face two major challenges: energy supply and waste disposal. First, most islands do not have indigenous energy resources, but instead have to ship in fuels over often considerable distances, at a considerable financial burden. Second, most islands do not have enough space for operating landfills, so that waste is often burnt under hazardous conditions, with resulting toxic emissions to air. Especially the oil embargos forced many island governments to re-think their energy supply strategies, and to consider introducing renewable energy sources, and efficiency and conservation policies. Similarly, landfill shortage and high energy prices have stimulated debates about waste-to-energy facilities. Renewable energy technologies vary considerably between island settings, depending on the availability of resources such as hydropotential or agricultural wastes. On very remote, small islands, solar-photovoltaic is often the only feasible renewable energy source. Wind power is by far the most utilized renewable energy source on islands around the world. Amongst the many obstacles preventing new energy and waste technologies to be implemented on remote islands are regulatory, legal and institutional barriers, high upfront capital cost and lack of aid, lack of skills to maintain technically sophisticated facilities, lack of knowledge, especially by policy makers, and inappropriate technology design, small size of the island economies preventing economies of scale for some technologies, and visual obstruction, noise, odour and other community objections.

In its first stage, this project participants will identify and compile key determinants and drivers of sustainability on the islands, such as population growth, age and skills structure, tourist arrivals and earnings, production structure, export earnings, foreign aid/support, annual imports and per-capita use of liquid energy carriers such as petrol and diesel, motor vehicle usage, public transport infrastructure and potential, electricity generation and consumption, energy demand structure, average incomes, fuel and electricity prices, and penetration and potential of renewable energy sources,

After assembling the statistical evidence, the project participants will then examine questions such as

• Does the island have an official energy strategy? If yes, who initiated it, and how? If not, why not?
• Does the island have an official environmental policy? If yes, who initiated it, and how? If not, why not?
• What is the decision structure on the island? Are there any barriers for implementation of sustainability policies?
• Which barriers exist for sustainable development because of particular cultural values and social structures on the island?
• Could there be a lack of incentive on environmental action because of overseas aid?
• Which barriers exist for sustainable development because of skills shortages?

Ultimately, the participants will attempt to answer overarching crucial questions such as

• What are the differences between the islands in terms of their environmental/energy situation?
• How can we explain these differences?
• Resulting from these insights: What could be potential drivers of change towards sustainability?

Results from this research will then be written up and submitted to a suitable academic outlet in the international peer-reviewed literature, in order to subject the findings to expert scrutiny, and obtain acceptance by key academic circles. The peer-reviewed document will then serve as a basis for an application for funding, with the aim of realising opportunities for inter-island transfer of ideas and skills. This transfer can take place as a series of inter-island visits of local experts - perhaps including transfer of real technology. During these visits, local experts will work together in realising solutions that are proven to work on one island, and that have been identified by the project team to have potential on another island. One example for such solutions are hand-built digesters - constructed using local knowledge and materials - capturing methane from farm animals. Such digesters do not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, the trapped biogas also provides a valuable energy resource. Another example is the capture of waste heat from the stacks of the islands' power houses, in order to run centralised cool stores. Such cool stores could lead to substantial reduction of electricity usage, and associated bills and emissions.

Our philosophy is that change towards sustainability has to be driven by islanders, not from the outside. The project is coordinated from the University of Sydney, but otherwise completely horizontally structured, with participants having the main influence on how the project proceeds.

A full Triple Bottom Line report on Norfolk Island is already available. In November 2010, Prof Manfred Lenzen visited Niue in order to plan for a sustainability initiative similar to that realised on Norfolk Island. The visit is documented in a televised interview on Niue TV. ISA thanks Tom Murray for editing the video file.

The location of islands participating in the project.

For further information please contact