Scoping the governance and co-benefits of circular food-energy systems in Pacific Islands Countries

While there has been extensive work globally on bio-gas digester systems, and the impacts they have on emissions and deforestation reductions, there is more limited understanding of these systems in small island developing states.

While Pacific Islands Countries contributions to greenhouse gasses are negligible, there is an increasing will to showcase efforts to develop initiatives that support mitigation, adaptation, and broader livelihood opportunities for Pacific communities. These multiple socio-environmental and economic co-benefits may come from localised food system interventions.

One emerging technology in Pacific islands is the use of biodigesters to convert agricultural waste (from food waste and manure) into bio-gas energy and fertilisers for home gardens. While the use of these technologies is well documented in Asia and Africa, the unique island geography and cultural context of the Pacific provide an opportunity to build more appropriate place-based approaches to support the use of bio-digesters as a mitigation, adaptation, and livelihood support tool.

This research activity will support the establishment of a multi-stakeholder partnership involving researchers, civil society, and business to determine the scope and boundaries of a complete study into co-benefits analysis and scaling factors for bio-digesters in Fiji, and possibly other Pacific Island Countries.

Project outputs include:

identifying potential climate co-benefits of circular food bio-digester systems and their associated governance structures
producing a journal paper on the potential types of climate co-benefits for Pacific islands from bio-digester systems, and existing sustainability governance frameworks for governing circular food-energy systems
producing a governance analysis of food-energy-waste systems
producing a narrative report on the case study of bio-digesters in Fiji, including an overview of the type of baseline data that exists on inputs and outputs, co-benefits data, and costs and benefits of bio-digesters
designing a future research study into the governance of climate co-benefits.