Unsettling resources symposium: renewable energy in the Pacific

Climate change is the greatest threat to Pacific Island Countries (PIC), which face increasingly severe weather events. The region is also powered predominantly by imported fossil fuels and suffers from low electrification rates in many areas, making the transition to renewable energy a policy priority to reduce emissions and promote energy security and resilience.

This symposium is a forum for exchanging ideas about trends in renewable energy and the reality of energy injustice in the Pacific. In conversation with scholars and practitioners we seek to grapple with the following questions:

• What renewable energy technology is being used and where in the Pacific?
• What is driving the risks and models of renewable energy technology transferral in the region?
• What governance frameworks and climate finance exist for the renewable energy needs of PIC?
• What community challenges and priorities exist and how are they being addressed?
• What are the impacts and benefits of renewable energy projects on local communities?

Sponsored by the Sydney Environment Institute and convened by Professor Susan Park and Dr. Kate Owens, the symposium opens with an online public event where experts and activists discuss the Pacific’s energy future. Then Day 1 is a workshop for practitioners and is a closed event and Day 2 will be a traditional academic symposium by invitation only. 

This event was presented online from Wednesday 8 - Thursday 9 September 2021.

This event is part of the Unsettling Resources research project that investigates the dependence of our energy use and systems on conventional energy and the global shift to renewables. It questions the political and economic viability, and the accountability and justice of current energy use and systems, and how this is being transformed through ‘smarter mining’ of critical minerals for renewable technology.

Header image: Maloff via Shutterstock ID - 1250888257