While the world’s attention is focused on the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Pacific Island country of New Caledonia is quietly struggling with its own climate change burden. Nicole Gooch investigates.

A camp at one of the world's largest nickel deposits, the Goro mine. Image: Wikicommons

Best known to Australians for its attractive tropical beaches and French food, New Caledonia will also soon become infamous as one of the highest emitters of CO2 in the word, thanks to plans for two new nickel mines and three new coal-fired power stations.

The island country is set to emit 36 tonnes of CO2 per person annually by 2015, ranking 7th in the world just in front of the United Arab Emirates and well ahead of Australia, with its 20.6 tonnes. Most of the coal used in New Caledonia will be imported from Australia.

France, which still has shared sovereignty over New Caledonia, did not include the island and its population of 250 000 people in its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in 2002.

This time round, though, the President of New Caledonia, Philippe Gomes, will be at the Copenhagen summit, and he wants New Caledonia to take part in action against climate change. The problem is that New Caledonia also holds 25 per cent of the world’s nickel reserves and is the world’s third largest exporter of nickel, behind Russia and Canada.

The existing nickel treatment plant sits in the middle of Noumea, in the Southern Province, and belongs to the country’s oldest and largest nickel producer, the Societe Le Nickel (SLN), part of the powerful French group Eramet. The SLN plans on building a new coal-fired power station by 2015 to replace its current fuel power generation plant.

For Kanak independentist George Mandaoue, an Assembly member for New Caledonia’s Northern Province, the construction of a second big mine down south and a coal-fired power station up north is incomprehensible.

“It is just incredible that we are going ahead with such developments, without having made any effort to look into economic alternatives or done studies on using renewable energies to avoid such high levels of CO2 emissions.”

The CEO of the SLN, Pierre Alla, believes that the environmentalists’ criteria of measuring CO2 emissions per capita is inadequate.

“Given the small size of our population, and the fact that most of the carbon emitted is for exports, I think that using per capita measurements is not relevant.”

The other two nickel treatment plants that the new coal-fired stations will power are still being built. The Koniambo Nickel Sas (KNS) mine in the Northern Province is owned by the Anglo-Swiss group Xstrata and the local SMSP, and is due to start operations in 2012. The second mine is at the extreme end of the Southern Province, at Goro, in the Bay of Prony, and is owned by the Brazilian company Vale-Inco. Goro is one of the world’s largest nickel deposits and mining is due to start production in 2010, using a new chemical treatment process.

Martine Cornaille with Kanak women at the Place des Cocotiers, Noumea, for the action against climate change day. Image: Nicole Gooch

Mr Mandaoue does point out that the mine up north is necessary for social development and political peace in New Caledonia, and to achieve equality with the more affluent Southern Province. But he also believes that “instead of rushing into copying the existent industrial models and contributing to global warming, we could have become proud pioneers in renewable energies and sustainable development.”

But both agree that the total CO2 emissions of New Caledonia need to be looked at from a global perspective, and whilst for some this means that the country’s contribution to global warming is minuscule, for others it means that New Caledonia now has a moral responsibility towards the rest of the planet, and in particular, towards its closest Pacific Island neighbours.

“We like to consider ourselves Pacific Islanders, but Pacific Islanders normally have a strong sense of solidarity towards each other. We are certainly not showing much of that at the moment,” said Mr Mandaoue.

“Of course the country’s emissions are tiny on a global scale, but it is no excuse. Rather, it is selfish and irresponsible,” said Martine Cornaille, president of the association of environmental NGOs, Together for the Planet.

According to Ms Cornaille, thousands of hectares of New Caledonia’s biodiversity have already been destroyed through more than a century of mining, and any restoration will be at great cost for the government.

“Intensive mining and its pollution also come at a cost for the population’s health and social well-being. Is it really worth it?”

Renewable energies, comprising hydro, wind and solar energy, is becoming a significant source of electricity in New Caledonia, producing 16 per cent of the country’s domestic needs. But two-thirds of the country’s total power production is consumed by the metal industry and the SLN itself consumes 90 per cent of the energy production from the hydro-power station, so that 78 per cent of New Caledonia’s power production comes from fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, the last fifteen years have witnessed the installation of 60 windmills in the Southern Province, many overlooking the construction site of the Goro mine. On some days, the windmills generate enough power to cover all the domestic needs of New Caledonia’s second largest town, Mont-Dore.
A little further south and right next-door to the Goro site, the 2000 inhabitants of the town of Yate are also gearing up towards sustainable development.

“We plan on developing new capacities for Yate in terms of renewable energy, through wind and hydro power as well as tidal energy,” said Raphael Mapou, High Chief of the St Louis tribe and chairman of the Rhéébù Nùù Committee, a strong indigenous rights group.

Following six years of both legislative and occasionally more physical battles, the Rhéébù Nùù Committee, the Customary Senate and representatives of the 8 Customary Districts of the South, have now signed a treaty with the mining giant Vale-Inco.

“The Treaty covers the protection of the environment and reforestation, as well as issues such as socio-cultural impacts, youth, education and economic development,” said Mr Mapou.

According to SLN CEO Alla, “the objectives of the SLN are to conform to European and New Caledonian legislation in terms of environmental protection.”

The switch over to the new coal-fired power station would reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide to around seven per cent of what they are now. However, the SLN plans on increasing its energy production, thanks to burning coal, with the aim of reaching 210 MW. The Goro power station in the south will be producing 100 MW, half of which will be for public consumption. The Koniambo KNS mine in the north will be producing 270MW, all of which will be for the nickel treatment plant.

“New Caledonia is an insular economy, and at this stage it has no viable economic alternatives to mining. Renewable energies would only produce a marginal amount of our factory’s needs,” said Mr Alla.

But according to the President of Together for the Planet, Ms Cornaille, “The industrialists have prioritised a short-term outlook. It should be the responsibility of our country’s leaders to prioritise the long-term.”

Chief Mapou said he regrets that more research was not done on the impacts of the coal fired power stations and on that of having three big mines in New Caledonia, be it environmental impacts or social consequences of the island being turned into a consumerism society.

“For the past couple of decades the position of the Kanak leaders has been the same: we need to control the development of the nickel industry so that it has a sustainable development trajectory. This is far from being the case now.”

New Caledonia may have missed out on the Kyoto protocol, but it did sign the 2006-2015 Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change. The framework is administered by the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), an inter-governmental organisation based in Samoa, which includes Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States as members, in addition to 22 Pacific Island countries.

According to SPREP’s Climate Change Advisor, Espen Ronneberg, who was also vice-chair of the 1997 Kyoto Conference, “New Caledonia needs to expand its electricity supply. It would have been good if additional energy efficiency measures could be considered, as well as renewable energy options.”

But for Assembly member Mr Mandaoue, there is still too much of a gap between political discourse on the environment and the reality.

“We should have prioritised investments in renewable energies and done comparative studies between the costs of mining and the benefits of establishing huge national forest reserves for eco-tourism for instance,” he said.

Chief Mapou is positive that active community involvement will play a vital role in steering things onto right track.

“The indigenous populations and customary Kanak leaders are going to get increasingly involved in protecting the environment and promoting renewable energies and eco-tourism. We will be guided by an approach to development that takes into account indigenous rights and traditional and philosophical values.”

Nicole Gooch is a freelance journalist currently living in New Caledonia. Contact her at nicolesgooch@gmail.com for further information.