President of Palau Surangel Whipps Jr. July 2023 Photo: flickr / FDD / Chris Williams
Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr believes nuclear energy could present an alternative to fossil fuels to tackle the climate crisis.
Whipps told RNZ Pacific on Tuesday that countries will continue their reliance on fossil fuels. However, he added, "what's most important is what are we doing to transition away from that".
Responding to questions about the New Zealand government campaigning against fossil fuel subsidies on the world stage, for example, at the United Nations climate change summits, while supporting the oil and gas industry domestically, he said: "All governments have to help their people."
"They [governments] have to provide financing for their people, and whether they're taking oil and gas out of the ground in New Zealand or they're taking out in Saudi Arabia, it's still oil and gas coming out of the ground.
"I applaud New Zealand for putting up wind farms and solar farms and I believe what you need to be doing is raising those ambitions."
According to Our World in Data, fossil fuels continue to play a dominant role in the global energy systems, accounting for more than 80 percent of the world's primary energy supply. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, provides about 10 percent of the world's electricity.
Pacific island nations are heavily reliant on fossil fuels, but are shifting their economies to renewable sources of energy generation.
Whipps said countries need to focus on how to reduce the use of those fossil fuels.
"Sometimes, we've got to look at alternatives, and one of those is nuclear energy. It's clean, it's carbon free.
"I want to be practical ... we need to find solutions. It shouldn't be [about] extract[ing] and exploit[ing] these resources so that we stay addicted to [it].
"If it's bringing down costs so people can live comfortably, but at the same time continue to transition [away from fossil fuels], that's what it should be about."
The Palau leader said the UN's Conference of Parties (COP) meetings are "always slow and a painstaking process, and sometimes very little gets done".
He said the recent COP29 summit in Azerbaijan "had high expectations [but] they were knocked down".
"But I would say this, as long as there's movement [at the COP meetings], it's better than stagnation."
Whipps added the money pledged at the UN climate talks "just goes back to the developed countries [for] their own programmes".
"We try to say money needs to go to those that are affected most. That's still the rallying call for the Pacific and for small island developing states.
"We still need to fight for that."
