Remarks by the Hon Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi of the Independent State of Samoa at the side event Island Resilience Forum: #SC1.5NCE not SILENCE
29 September 2020 (11:00am – 12:30pm EDT)
Excellencies, Ladies & Gentlemen.
Last year during the United Nations General Assembly, I joined the Island Resilience Forum to announce Samoa’s public-private partnership to achieve our ambitious NDC goals and reduce the cost of energy for our citizens.
Along with GridMarket and the Island Resilience Partnership, we launched phase one of Samoa’s national energy transition – inviting the global provider community to participate in our historic transformation.
There were more than 40 respondents – from the largest energy companies in the world to smaller local solution providers. GridMarket and EPC – Samoa’s utility – worked hand-in-hand to develop a detailed Request for Tender and ultimately invited 22 entities to participate.
We were well positioned to accelerate Samoa’s transition to renewable energy and resilient infrastructure.
With the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions it was evident that major projects around the world would be impacted. Our partnership would surely suffer extensive delays as well.
Fortunately, GridMarket and EPC quickly moved to adapt their established approach to meet this unprecedented challenge. By designing a comprehensive, detailed process leveraging drones and videographers to document Samoa’s national energy infrastructure and facilitating detailed interviews with EPC leadership, GridMarket and EPC created the conditions conducive for participating companies to forego travel to Samoa before submitting their final bids.
This innovative spirit is at the heart of the SAMOA Pathway framework.
We are now reviewing Tenders from the top bidders and can confidently say that phase one of Samoa’s national energy transition will be a huge success, bringing us incredibly close to our goal of 100% renewable energy.
At the same time, we would dramatically reduce the cost of energy and create more resilient infrastructure for our nation.
Along with our partners GridMarket and the Island Resilience Partnership, we are proud to have demonstrated how a “genuine, durable” partnership can leverage its respective strengths and achieve success, even in the face of extraordinary obstacles.
As we enter this critical phase, we remain confident that we will not only accomplish our partnership’s stated goals – we will surpass them.
As the global community confronts the dual existential threats of the climate crisis and the coronavirus, it is imperative that the world unites behind the science and scales proven partnerships to achieve transformative progress. I encourage other countries to publicly support the IPCC 1.5C Special Report heading into COP26 and join the SC1.5NCE(SCIENCE) Not SILENCE campaign so that we can collectively strengthen global resilience before it is too late.
Thank you. Soifua.
