The Cook Islands prime minister, Henry Puna, says it will cost the country 800 million US dollars to have all electricity coming from renewable sources.
Mr Puna told a recent high-level conference in Barbados that he remains committed to the United Nations' Sustainable Energy for All initiative.
He says Sustainable Energy for All is about freedom from the bondage of fossil fuel; a bondage that costs the Cook Islands more than 62 million US dollars a year.
But he says it will cost 800 million US to generate all the electricity needs of the Cook Islands from clean, cost-effective renewable energy technologies.
