The abundance of copra in the country had been utilised for the betterment of people living in maritime islands, especially within the Lau group. Bio fuel projects had been implemented in Rotuma, Koro Island and Cicia in the Lau Group and plans are in place for more projects around the country. Department of Energy media liason officer Losena Tudreu said the islands were identified after intense feasibility studies or surveys and consultations with the communities.

The declining or insufficient returns from copra farming have forced Pacific producers to seek alternative sources of income. Burning coconut oil as a fuel is a relatively low-valued end use for the coconut. The labour intensiveness of copra production presents an intractable cost frontier that renders coconut bio-fuel projects uneconomic in most parts of the Pacific. Consequently, those communities that have managed to access alternative markets are unlikely to be attracted back to copra. While copra farmers in low-wage locations in remote Melanesia and Micronesia could benefit from local consumption of coconut bio-fuels, there is a need to explore alternative policies to reduce the Pacific’s dependence on imported oil, electrify rural areas and increase rural incomes.

Fossil-based energy imposes huge costs to the domestic economy. These include risk from the volatility of oil prices, trade deficits due to high energy imports; and greenhouse gas emissions contribution to global warming. Rural electrification projects in remote areas of Fiji have been predominantly diesel based. Under the Fiji Rural Electrification Policy, Government will contribute up to 95 per cent of project cost whilst the community/village provides the remaining 5 per cent.

The Fiji Department of Energy through its rural electrification programme developed two community-based biofuel projects in Vanua Balavu (villages of Lomaloma, Naqara and Sawana) and Welagi in Taveuni with funding assistance provided by the French Government through the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. The primary objective of the projects was to use coconut oil to generate electricity for the communities. The Vanua Balavu Biofuel Project was installed in April 2000 and the Welagi Biofuel Project was installed in July 2001.

Small scale oil production in the village of Nacamaki, Koro Island, Republic of the Fiji Islands can assist in achieving developing goals of this rural remote community. By changing from the mere production of dried copra into value adding activities such as the production of bio-fuel for an adapted generator, cooking oil, body oil and soap, the village community increases its diversifies its income base and therefore its economic resilience.

We, Ministers and Senior Representatives, members, and observer nations, of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) from the Pacific, representing a significant number, and a representative group, of those
countries most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change in our region, have adopted 16 recommendations for improving the response to the climate crisis at our Regional Dialogue of the CVF
for the Pacific held on 1-3 September 2021.

The third in a series of regional to global cooperation activities of the CVF being held in 2021 in the lead up to the October-November 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP26) in
Glasgow, the CVF Pacific Regional Dialogue was co-hosted by Bangladesh, in its role as CVF Chair, and the Marshall Islands, and organized in cooperation with the Global Center on Adaptation.

To do a literature survey on the topic Coconut oil as a biofuel resource for Fiji – history, current status and future prospects. In this research the status of coconut production in the world is compared together with the Pacific Island Countries. The major survey is concentrated on the Fiji Islands. Although village biofuel systems have been applied with various degrees of success in other Pacific island countries, there is not a lot of experience with this technology in Fiji. The places where the coconut oil gen-sets are placed in Fiji together with the Pacific Island countries are discussed in this research.