The Unit­ed Na­tions has set a glob­al goal to triple re­new­able en­er­gy ca­pac­i­ty and dou­ble en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy im­prove­ments by 2030, and Caribbean stake­hold­ers are con­cerned that our is­lands are lag­ging far be­hind our im­mense po­ten­tial. At the Re-En­er­gise Caribbean: Clean En­er­gy Cat­a­lyst Work­shops on Fri­day 14th March, held in Bridgetown, Bar­ba­dos, par­tic­i­pants from across the re­gion met to strate­gize so­lu­tions that can cre­ate a more en­abling en­vi­ron­ment for trans­for­ma­tive re­new­able en­er­gy in­no­va­tions.

Af­ter a fruit­ful ac­tiv­i­ty which saw par­tic­i­pants de­sign roadmaps for re­new­able en­er­gy project im­ple­men­ta­tion, pri­vate sec­tor lead­ers gath­ered to sign a Clean En­er­gy Pledge, demon­strat­ing their com­mit­ment to ac­tions which will dri­ve the clean en­er­gy tran­si­tion for­ward for the Caribbean.

The Re-En­er­gise Caribbean Work­shops were in­ter­ac­tive fo­rums for en­light­en­ing di­a­logue and so­lu­tion-build­ing fea­tur­ing a se­lec­tion of pri­vate sec­tor and civ­il so­ci­ety ac­tors who are mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant strides in en­er­gy and en­vi­ron­men­tal work in the re­gion. Par­tic­i­pants in­clud­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives from or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Caribbean Cen­ter for Re­new­able En­er­gy & En­er­gy Ef­fi­cien­cy (CCREEE), CARI­COM De­vel­op­ment Fund, Caribbean En­er­gy Cham­ber, CAR­ILEC, Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Banks, the IADB, Ja­maica’s Of­fice of Util­i­ty Reg­u­la­tion, the Bar­ba­dos Na­tion­al Oil Com­pa­ny, RMI, Youth Irie, CARIRI, Glob­al Green Growth In­sti­tute, Cli­mate Track­er, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

The Work­shops were led by Cli­mate An­a­lyt­ics Caribbean, Dr. James Fletch­er – CARI­COM Cli­mate En­voy, and Dr. Diego Aceve­do – Ene­da En­gi­neer­ing Ser­vices and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Aru­ba.

Dr. James Fletch­er, CARI­COM Cli­mate En­voy, not­ed that in­for­ma­tion scarci­ty is caus­ing cit­i­zens to miss out on ex­cep­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties to trans­form our economies and busi­ness­es via re­new­able en­er­gy in­vest­ment. He high­light­ed that ac­cord­ing to the Caribbean Sus­tain­able En­er­gy Roadmap and Strat­e­gy (C-SERMS), CARI­COM Gov­ern­ments have sig­naled their in­ten­tion to tran­si­tion away from us­ing fos­sil fu­els.

“Every sin­gle is­land in the Caribbean has re­new­able en­er­gy po­ten­tial, how­ev­er com­par­ing our re­new­able en­er­gy pen­e­tra­tion against the tar­gets we have set – in al­most every in­stance we are way be­low tar­get,” said Dr. Fletch­er. “Chal­lenges in­clude fac­tors such as mo­nop­o­lized and cen­tral­ized fos­sil fu­el-based struc­tures, reg­u­la­to­ry am­bi­gu­i­ty cre­at­ing an im­bal­anced play­ing field, bu­reau­cra­cy, ac­cess to fi­nance for in­fra­struc­ture, and the need to en­sure a just tran­si­tion. How­ev­er, there are op­por­tu­ni­ties. In many is­lands, the high cost of elec­tric­i­ty makes re­new­able en­er­gy not just at­trac­tive but nec­es­sary if these coun­tries are to be com­pet­i­tive. Greater reg­u­la­to­ry cer­tain­ty will im­prove the in­vest­ment en­vi­ron­ment, as will the de­vel­op­ment of clear En­er­gy Sec­tor plans and broad­er en­er­gy ecosys­tem plans, as well as cat­alyt­ic and blend­ed fi­nance to re­duce the cost of cap­i­tal.

Once our peo­ple are em­pow­ered with in­for­ma­tion on these op­por­tu­ni­ties, they can lob­by their gov­ern­ments, reg­u­la­tors, and bank­ing sec­tor to make the path a lot eas­i­er for them.

This is a win-win sit­u­a­tion, there are so many op­por­tu­ni­ties there.”

Dr. Fletch­er al­so called for Caribbean coun­tries to:

– ex­plore the op­tion for a Re­gion­al En­er­gy In­fra­struc­ture Fund for Ag­gre­gat­ed Re­new­able En­er­gy Projects; sup­port a re­fo­cused CCREEE to guide the tran­si­tion,

– im­ple­ment ef­fec­tive da­ta and mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems at the na­tion­al and re­gion­al lev­els,

– ag­gre­gate de­mand and pool pro­cure­ment,

– make greater in­vest­ment in train­ing and en­gage­ment of youth,

– en­gage com­mu­ni­ties in plan­ning and im­ple­ment­ing Re­new­able En­er­gy projects,

– and ramp up the de­vel­op­ment of large-scale project pro­pos­als

Work­shop par­tic­i­pants al­so ben­e­fit­ted from pre­sen­ta­tions from Ms. Skee­ta Caras­co, Man­ag­er, Cli­mate Fi­nance Ac­tion Net­work at RMI, Ms. Mar­ga Buys, Con­sul­tant at Ma­tribu BV, and Mr. Gio­van­ni Buck­le, Project Man­ag­er at CCREEE.

“We are pleased by the par­tic­i­pant feed­back that these Work­shops have in­spired them to seek in­clu­sive ac­tion and pro­mote own­er­ship by key re­gion­al stake­hold­ers for a clean en­er­gy tran­si­tion in the Caribbean,” said Kristin Qui, Cli­mate Diplo­ma­cy Ad­vi­sor, Cli­mate An­a­lyt­ics Caribbean.