An Australian billionaire and the head of a Paris fashion label plan to burn trash for energy in Fiji. The Pacific nation's U.N. ambassador says the idea risks spoiling a “beach paradise.”
The Australian-based duo of billionaire Ian Malouf and fashion designer Rob Cromb want to build a port and waste incinerator within nine miles of Fiji's tourism gateway of Nadi.
They have told Fiji's government the project could meet 40% of the small country's electricity needs, cutting its reliance on diesel.
But an environmental impact statement filed by their company shows it would also raise Fiji's national greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. Residents say the emissions will spoil Fiji's eco-tourism reputation and pose a safety risk to nearby hotels and schools.
Fiji's ambassador to the U.N. wrote on social media that the coast north of Nadi quote “must not become the Pacific's ashtray”.
Agence France-Presse reports the incinerator proposal is creating a backlash among villagers. Cromb, who was born in Fiji, has held community meetings to explain his side.
But the plan filed with Fiji's government showed it would feed in local waste as well as waste shipped from Australia and across the region.
Opponents have told the government it would violate a 1998 agreement signed by Australia to not ship hazardous waste to a Pacific island country.
