July 11, 2022
Intervention by Mr. Jeem Lippwe, Head of Delegation of the Federated States of Micronesia on Agenda 6(a): Energy-efficient and low-global-warming-potential technologies: Report by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (decision XXXIII/5);
Good afternoon co-chairs and colleagues.
It’s a real pleasure for the delegation of the Federated States of Micronesia to be here in person with you all again. Many thanks to the secretariat for their hard work to put this meeting together and for their support navigating the challenges of running meetings during the pandemic. We are grateful to our generous host, the government of Thailand, for hosting us again in the beautiful city of Bangkok.
On this particular agenda item, the delegation of the Federated States of Micronesia would like to thank the TEAP energy efficiency task force for yet another excellent report. The content of the report is very helpful in strengthening our understanding of these evolving issues and supporting our decision-making nationally – in fact, for countries that have limited research and scientific resources, like ours, the technical and scientific information of these reports is invaluable. We are grateful for their attention to issues for low-volume consuming countries.
The report is also critical for our cooperative decision-making. We hope that there will be an opportunity at this meeting to exchange views among parties in a contact group, including what more can be done to translate this information into further action. A contact group will give us a chance to consider important topics that support our work as we transition to the implementation of the Kigali Amendment.
First, we have a couple specific questions for the TEAP, followed by a general comment.
- Could the TEAP speak the critical questions of the obstacles to access the critical question of the obstacles to access to EE (energy efficiency)/low GWP technologies in A5 countries? Have things improved since earlier reports? Are the barriers essentially the same for LVCS as for non-LVCS? Do the barriers remain the same or are they evolving? And if not, what might be preventing any improvements?
- What kinds of renewable energy opportunities exist for the RAC sector, especially for off grid applications?
Now, to our general comments: coming from a Pacific small island developing state barely a few meters above sea-level, I feel it is necessary for Micronesia to stress in this forum that the intergovernmental panel on climate change recently published its 6th assessment report in which it paints a frightening picture of increased warming and accelerating climate impacts. It is indeed frightening and concerning to us in Micronesia as we are already experiencing these impacts to our food sources, coastal erosion of our islands that may force us to leave our homes, and increased temperatures and severe storms — we are aware many countries – perhaps even every country – is experiencing similar challenges. While climate action in other forums is lagging, the Montreal Protocol is one place that we trust can make headway on emissions in the sectors relevant to our work. The apparent opportunities, for example, in cold chain management – many which were presented the other day (yesterday) at the cold chain symposium – are worth discussing and elaborating upon. Expanding on these opportunities will not only serve our work under the protocol and its Kigali Amendment but offers very many critical co-benefits to issues at the top of our development agendas, namely food security, as well as delivery of vaccines and health care. We hope to see more on this topic in future TEAP reports. And we think this meeting is a timely opportunity to begin discussions on how we can strengthen cold chain management in our work.
Thank you, Mr. Co-chair
