Could rising sea levels undermine the potential for islands to produce biofuels from coconut oil?
Tonga’s sea level monitoring programme has registered a 10 mm rise in recent years, and the trend is likely to continue. The scenarios in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change project sea level rises ranging from 18 to nearly 60 cm. Such local effects of global climate change will have important implications for the people of island nations and their lives and livelihoods, including the energy alternatives that are available to them. Coconut oil (copra) is widely being considered among island nations of the Pacific as a potential replacement for imported diesel used for power production and transport. Locally produced from existing plantations, which have recently suffered neglect as a result of declining global prices, copra could help island nations save considerably on petroleum imports. One recent report (Liquid Biofuels in Pacific Island Countries – SOPAC Miscellaneous Report 628, April 2007) estimates that, with anticipated investments in improvi
