East Timor is being forced to remain dependent on fossil fuels as international aid declines, President Jose Ramos-Horta has told a clean energy summit in Perth.
The country’s electricity grid is almost entirely powered by costly diesel, a situation Mr Ramos-Horta said was deterring investment and slowing economic diversification.
“The cost of our energy in Timor-Leste is a killer of investors,” he told the Global Citizen Now conference on Monday.
He said official development assistance that could support a faster transition to a greener economy had “almost ceased to exist”, with some traditional Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development donor countries redirecting funds towards the war in Ukraine and refugee support.
“For the time being, and for many years to come, we need fossil fuel development to power the diversification of our economy into green energy and a green economy,” Mr Ramos-Horta said.
The Nobel Prize winner added: “We need fossil fuels; we need to develop our oil, gas, offshore and onshore, to survive.”
He also pointed to “draconian” reductions in humanitarian aid budgets, including funding for the World Food Programme and UNICEF, saying the cuts made it more difficult for countries to move rapidly towards cleaner energy.
Pacific renewable energy funding
The comments came as the Green Climate Fund announced plans to accelerate access to finance for Pacific nations through a package of grants and investment funding worth up to 1 billion dollars.
The proposal, due to be presented to the fund’s board for approval next week, covers 21 projects and is expected to serve 3.7 million people — about one in four of the population across 14 Pacific islands.
Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao, the fund’s director of external relations, said it would work with regional and local partners on renewable energy, water and climate-resilient infrastructure projects.
