Climate change and entrepreneurship in the Pacific

Prime is drawing on its extensive Pacific Islands networks and knowledge to highlight climate-related social entrepreneurship opportunities in the region.

It is doing so on behalf of Europe's largest public-private innovation partnership, Climate-KIC, which is focused on climate innovation to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Climate-KIC was established in 2010 and is predominately funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body of the European Union.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, it operates from 13 hubs across Europe and is currently active in 39 countries.

For this assignment, Climate-KIC is interested in how to best help residents in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) leverage opportunities around climate change solutions that will create viable businesses and socially-responsible income streams.

An entrepreneurship ecosystem mapping exercise is currently being conducted by a three-person consulting team from Prime – Shirley McGill (New Zealand), Vili Caniogo (Fiji) and Noellie Garand (Fiji).

The exercise will shed light on how business and entrepreneurialism function in the Pacific context and what sorts of external support might give it a boost.

Shirley is a former Lead Advisor for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, in its Climate Finance Delivery, Climate Change & Environment Unit.

She was involved in the original development of an innovative climate finance capacity building programme that Prime subsequently designed (read more about that here).

Vili is an experienced policy advisor who has been providing capacity building and advisory services in the Pacific for almost 20 years, encompassing agriculture, economic resilience and SME development.

Noellie is the Fiji-based Director of Prime Consulting Pacific, running the local office, and is a social entrepreneur in her own right (read more about that here).

“This assignment is looking at the changing environment in the Pacific and the opportunities that poses for new forms of business, from the advent of new problems to be solved.

“Of course, this is occurring amid negative changes to existing operations and livelihoods driven by climate change.

“Climate-KIC wants to ensure its initiatives match the need of PICs as they adapt to the changing environment,” says Prime Group Director Dr Alan Pearson.

“Through our desktop research, stakeholder interviews and regional knowledge base, we aim to provide a window into the current status and realities of climate-relevant entrepreneurial activity in the Pacific.

“There is a lot of practical innovation that goes on in PICs at local level and while a lot of the region’s economy is informal, that’s not to be underestimated.

“Some informal business can be migrated to the formal sector, but the informal economy also has value.”

The assignment is funded by IrishAid, which Climate-KIC has partnered with since 2019.

Together they are aiming to expand operations into the Pacific, across the regions of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia.