Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Fiji hopes to raise $US 50 million by selling sovereign climate bonds, to fund its transition to 100% renewable energy.
Fiji has announced it will issue a sovereign green bond of US$50 million to raise funds for the Pacific nation to tackle climate change.
Fiji hopes to raise US$50 million (A$62 million) by selling a batch of “green” bonds to investors to help tackle the environmental threats it faces from climate change.
They will finance projects to help achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, in line with Fiji’s adherence to the Paris climate change agreement.
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said his nation lived on the front lines of climate change.
“The rising seas, changing weather patterns and severe weather events are threatening our development, our security and the Fijian way of life, along with the very existence of some of our low-lying neighbours,” Mr Bainimarama said.
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“We are also sending a clear signal to other nations that we can be creative and innovative in mobilising funds and create win-win outcomes for countries and investors in adapting to the serious effects of climate change,” he said.
The announcement comes as Fiji prepares to chair the 23rd Climate Change Conference in Germany in early November.
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Five year bonds will return a four per cent interest rate, and 13 year bonds have an interest rate of 6.3 per cent.
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Read more: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/18/fiji-issue-bond-fight-climate-change
No doubt virtue signalling politicians across the world will leap to purchase Fiji’s climate bonds with your money.
Fiji is a dictatorship by the post British folks that were brought into the country from the Indian subcontinent for agricultural production. The British left and the Indian peoples stayed and developed on the British mercantile system that the indigenous peoples were not interested in. The government is likely doing this to “green” skim a goodly percent of the money and virtual signal to the world.
Most rural Fijians use cooking gas and get evening light with kerosene lanterns. Gasoline is the primary fuel for marine transport to outlying islands for personal travel and diesel for the ferries.
Previous posts refer to the inevitable reset to “green” infrastructure due to hurricane destruction. Major hurricanes being on average, twice a lifetime based on conversations I had with older Fijians. Winds are seasonal. Solar is already in use for cellular tower systems that work really well. “Your book is in at the Brisbane library” text to daughter while we were on holiday there, proved that this system works from a Australian cell company that serves in Fiji.
Wind power will get blown to smithereens. Solar would use too much land in a country that needs all it can get for food production. Base oil fired power will always be there and they could build coal…
I repeat
Its a green signalling scam that no one should buy into.
““The rising seas,…”
Here is the actual data from Fiji. Declining sea levels for the last 10 years. Is it me or does it seem that officials fib more than they used to AND seem to have fewer consequences for those fibs?
http://www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/rlr.monthly.plots/1327_high.png
Dave in C, where did you find that interesting graph? Please link.
http://www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/stations/1327.php
Note the following. (Especially the bit about land subsidence)
“For Information: A gauge was maintained on behalf of the TOGA Sea Level Center until it was withdrawn in May 1989. A gauge at Kings Wharf was destroyed in November 1983 and was re-located to Walu Bay Naval Facility (operated by University of Hawaii)There was a 3 month overlap between the new NOAA gauge and the Walu gauge.
From November 1997 the responsibility for the station in Suva was taken over by the Australian National Tidal Facility from the US NOAA. Comparison of daily means for Suva with those for Lautoka and satellite altimetry suggest there could be land subsidence at the Suva station equating to a slow positive sea level trend.”
In 1983 when the gauge was broken, Suva’ Kings Wharf was being renovated under the (first) Port of Suva Rehabilitation Project (there have been others since) which was financed by ADB. According to ADB “Before the project, Suva port’s deck was extremely corroded, riddled with concrete cancer, lighting was poor, and the deck’s ability to withstand heavy cargo loads was also in doubt.” The 1983 project involved extensive repairs to the reinforced concrete deck which effectively increased its thickness, full length access bridges from the landside to the quay. The steel landside seawall was faced with concrete to stop it from rusting and many metres of rock fill were placed against it forming a berm to keep it stable. The slope of the berm extended almost the full width of the quay.
So ‘yes’, there could be a subsidence issue there.
Shit! Facts trump speculation again.
“Green Bonds” – are they anything like Green Stamps, and if so, how many does it take to fill a book, and how many books to buy a solar panel?
http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/8546/9875904_1.jpg?v=8CD2D760AFE3250
Looks like the Prime Minister fancies a new Mercedes, and he knows a way he might get it.
Government supply Mercedes, of course.
Sighhh
Auto
[Mind, my brother has a very recent Mercedes – probably needs a recall for air-bag issues – but it certainly is a nice car.
Lots of fancy bits like parking sensors and a self-closing boot!
Doesn’t carry as much wine from France as my Zafira, though!]
Might be a deal if the Fijians spend the money to build an arc. They can use it as a tourist hotel until they need it to escape the next great flood. It hedges the bet. Everyone wins.
As recently as 1992, wiki cites the Monasavu Dam/Wailoa Hydro Power Station as supplying 92% of the main island’s power.
Given the geography and climate, I suspect they could get a lot more hydro-power if they really wanted to. But it’s just not fashionable in many places like California these days, so I guess Fiji just has to do the same thing.
Why doesn’t Fiji just ban tourism to save the world? Make all of those overseas airline travel emissions go away.
Closing all those hotels would also reduce the islands power demand.
And probably lower the rate of subsidence.
Given that this whole Fijian story is really just about bilking the global warming scam, a sign of how foolish the global warmistas are:
It’s only slightly O/T, but the third largest island in Fiji, Taveuni, has a wiki page containing the statement
But this was preceded by the statement
So, a place that already receives a most ungodly amount of rain is going to suffer from either unusual flooding, or a shortage of water? lol. If a millionaire sees his income reduced, or increased, by a few thousand per year, what is he going to do?
These people are idiots.
21st Century Cargo Cult.
Beats me why government bonds are usually considered a safe investment. They should ALL have junk rating as governments can devalue currencies and if you eventually want your money back, or the agreed interest, they are just as likely to stick an AK up your nose and tell you to eff off.
I would stay away from those bonds.
The Fijian papers are breathlessly reporting the speeches at the pre-COP23 conference:
The ILO’s Maria Menendez called for research into the effects of climate on future employment. The Conference decided to establish an ongoing “Job Creation Committee” at the Bonn conference.
Bonn will also adopt a “Gender Action Plan” – which was discussed at a women-only breakfast this morning. The Australian Government has undertaken to meet the costs of women delegates to Bonn from 14 island countries.
The UN deputy-secretary hailed a DiCaprio tweet: “To address the climate crisis we must address inequality.” This concept underlies most of the rhetoric here.
The UN climate world is a progressive nirvana. What next? Committees to address transgender bathrooms and campus micro-aggressions?
Free holidays for those that love in take part in meetings , from their point to view what is not to like ?
The “Gender Action Plan” must include birthing more girl babies?
If Fiji can get their bonds sold at a lower interest rate because the market them as “green” then that is a boon to them. Some people will pay good money to feel better about themselves. (I do wonder why they feel so bad about themselves.)
The problem is when they make the rest of us pay our good money so they can feel good about themselves.
It would be great for Fiji if (very far offshore) wind energy was cheap and they had a method of assuring continuous power. I’m not thinking that this will happen in the life of the bonds, though.
It doesn’t matter what the terms of the bonds are, the investors are unlikely to get paid.
Fiji’s biggest money spinners are tourism aid, and sugar.
It has been running Trade Deficits for almost its entire existence.
Whats the chances of them defaulting as last happened in 1983??
Mick