Under its Strategic Research Theme programme, USP has taken the lead regionally in research in low carbon transport, in partnership with organizations such as IUCN-ORO, WWF-South Pacific Programme and the Pacific Heritage Hub as well as relevant USP departments (including schools of Marine Studies, Economics, OCACPS and PaCE-SD). Domestic sea-transport has been the initial focus of research but USP is now working, with our partners, on aspects of land and air transport as well.
Low carbon sea transport has not been considered in the Pacific since a range of programmes during the 1970/80s oil crisis. In 2013 STR funded the Sustainable Sea Transport Research Programme (SSTRP) a small multi-disciplinary team for an initial year and in 2014 extended this for a further year under the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD). SSTRP has been highly productive hosting two international conferences and with a strong publication record in leading journals and now providing ministerial and government advice to several PICs. USP research associates are lead authors for IRENA of a global technical review on renewable energy applications for international shipping.
USP has established the Oceania Centre for Sustainable Transport and is proud to be the Pacific connection for the IWSA
