A new video from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) highlights efforts by the international organisation to lead by example and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2016.
The SPC: Small Steps, Big Vision video shows how – as part of its Climate Change Engagement Strategy – SPC is implementing an emissions reduction program across its main offices in Noumea, New Caledonia; Suva, Fiji; Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia; and Honiara, Solomon Islands.
SPC partnered with Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to develop and introduce its Emissions Reduction Strategy which includes energy efficiency measures, a green office and staff travel policy, and automatic reporting of emissions using SPC’s financial system.
“Given the magnitude of technical and scientific support SPC provides to its member countries and territories concerning climate change and energy efficiency, it’s vital that we practice what we preach,” Dr Tukuitonga said.
“Consolidated figures indicate that so far we’ve reduced our total greenhouse gas emissions by 12 per cent relative to our 2011 baseline emissions of 201 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
“SPC must continue its efforts to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and other measures to reduce harmful emissions and provide financial benefits. We expect the cost of our program will break even in about seven years, but it will require the support of all of our staff to make this happen,” the Director-General said.
In addition to SPC’s emissions reduction efforts, GIZ and SPC are also collaborating to implement the regional program, Coping with Climate Change in the Pacific Island Region, with funds from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
“Although we’re realising that in global terms the contribution of the Pacific region to greenhouse gas emissions is quite small, we believe that if we want to do something, we have to start with ourselves,” the Programme Director and Senior Adviser for GIZ, Dr Wulf Killmann, said.
“We consider it tremendously important to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. We should implement what we’re preaching, and the GIZ team is striving to contribute as part and parcel of the larger SPC family,” Dr Killmann said.
The new video is available on the SPC YouTube site;
Media contact: Jean-Noel Royer SPC Communication Officer, [email protected] or +687 87 70 63