In August 2020, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) released The Recover Better with Sustainable Energy Guide for Caribbean Countries. 

The guide "shows how sustainable energy investment can support Caribbean countries to 'Recover Better’ [from the COVID-19 pandemic] and accelerate a clean energy transition to deliver long-term economic growth and new jobs." The following information is from the press release. The full guide is available here.

"According to the guide, the Caribbean region has a historic opportunity to transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to one powered by resilient, decentralized, clean energy. Currently, the Caribbean power sector is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels and has some of the highest electricity costs in the world. Under an ambitious recover better strategy, Caribbean countries should aspire to invest as much as 25 percent of their stimulus budgets for on-grid and off-grid renewable energy – through a combination of solar, hydro and wind. Accelerating this transition will also generate significant economic growth, with an estimated annual saving of USD 9 billion in fuel costs if all 31 countries in the Caribbean move to 90 percent clean energy by 2030."

'This investment will also help grow the region’s resilience and energy security to deal with the impacts of climate change and extreme weather, which Caribbean countries are particularly vulnerable to. In addition to high electricity costs, centralized electricity systems have shown to be weak during extreme weather events with devastating effect. Off-grid systems, such as solar-based mini-grids, can keep critical services like health facilities connected when the centralized system fails. A renewable energy future also helps support faster progress on the Paris Agreement."

“'As Caribbean countries continue to respond to the impacts of COVID-19, they have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ‘Recover Better’ with sustainable energy to support greater energy resilience and security,' said  Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy. 'By investing in sustainable energy, countries can use this moment to move away from a fossil fuel-based economy to one powered by clean energy that will provide cheaper electricity for consumers and help support the vital tourism industry in the region.'  Countries that commit to an ambitious recover better strategy will benefit from increased GDP, affordable energy provision, and improved gender and health outcomes. Investment in distributed energy resources will not only benefit the electricity systems and communities, but also support tourism across the region – a core industry for Caribbean countries. From supporting food cold chains to powering businesses, local renewable resources and energy efficiency measures can enhance competitiveness, lower energy costs, increase resilience and stimulate the local industry.  

"The new Recover Better with Sustainable Energy Guide from SEforALL highlights key policy measures Caribbean governments should adopt to ensure a successful energy transition in this period, including:

• Robust policies and institutions in support of renewables and energy efficiency: To deliver strong growth of renewables and energy efficiency, governments should establish or empower institutions such as regulators and other relevant agencies and ensure the right frameworks are in place to successfully drive the development of renewables and energy efficiency. 
• Shifting electricity sector investments to renewable energy plus storage: For power generation, new investments in renewables are cheaper than new investments in fossil fuels in all major markets today. By adding storage, Caribbean countries can increase resilience, use homegrown energy, avoid creating future fossil fuel stranded assets and reduce the significant negative consequences both to the public’s health and to the fragile ecosystems of the region. With continuing cost reductions, renewables plus storage are now cheaper for many Caribbean countries than conventional fossil fuels – providing reliable power for up to 14 hours a day.  
• Invest in energy efficiency: Investment in energy efficiency saves on energy bills, creates jobs and is the cheapest way to reduce emissions. For instance, cold chains are integral to the tourism and agriculture sector of the Caribbean region, and energy efficient cold chain systems would ensure not only significant cost savings for businesses, but also strengthen food security across a region that is vulnerable to various climate risks.  
• Ease of doing business: Several activities can be put in place to ensure that investments are driven as fast as possible, including faster approval processes and transparent investment policies (price discovery, reverse auctions etc.) for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Fiscal incentives such as reducing or eliminating import duties and VAT for renewable energy equipment and energy efficient appliances should also be considered."

"Other key recommendations outlined in The Recover Better with Sustainable Energy Guide for Caribbean Countries include investing in robust data, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, moving towards cost-reflective tariffs and investing in people so they can take advantage of new clean energy jobs"


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The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) invites renewable energy project developers to register projects that are seeking financing on the Climate Investment Platform, a global multi-stakeholder initiative to mobilize investments at the necessary scale to achieve meaningful progress towards climate objectives.

The Climate Investment Platform is organized around 14 regional clusters, including:

• Central America
• South America
• Caribbean Islands

Each regional cluster and investor forum supports matchmaking between projects, project developers, and potential financiers and investors. Renewable energy projects, along with renewable-based electricity grid and energy efficiency projects, may be considered for support.
 
IRENA’s Investment Forums will be structured around three main phases:

• Phase 1: Development of a project pipeline
• Phase 2: Investment Forum event
• ​Phase 3: Post-forum project support

More details on each phase are available at this link. 

Climate Investment Platform

The following information is from the IRENA website: "The Climate Investment Platform (CIP) is a global initiative, announced on the occasion of the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in September 2019, by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All), in co-operation with the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The CIP is an inclusive partnership welcoming all stakeholders, from governments and international organizations to the private sector, to scale up climate action and translate ambitious national climate targets into concrete investments on the ground. Working collectively and together with all interested partners, the CIP aims to mobilise investments at the necessary scale to achieve meaningful progress towards climate objectives. The CIP will initially focus on energy transition, with the ultimate goal of accelerating investments in renewable energy and enabling the realisation of the ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)."

Caribbean nations are looking to attract as much as $30 billion of investment to expand the clean power sector and cut reliance on fossil fuels, according to the Caribbean Development Bank. “Most of our countries are highly dependent on fossil fuels for power generation,” Caribbean Development Bank president Warren Smith said in an interview to Bloomberg News in London. “This vulnerability to volatile oil prices has contributed hugely to the competitiveness challenges of Caribbean industries.” About $20 billion is needed in the next five to 10 years to replace power plants and upgrade distribution and transmission, he said. There is potential to replace 4,750MW of fossil-fuel generation with renewables through 2019, Smith said. The bank is talking with regional utilities interested in building clean energy plants to feed power into the grid. Smith also noted that the region is starting from a very low level of renewables deployment and needs policy support from governments if it is to realize this clean energy vision. For example, only two countries - Jamaica and Barbados - currently allow households and businesses generating their own power through technologies such as solar panels to sell it back to the grid, leading to a policy gap that acts as a barrier to wider investment. "The regulatory environment is a prerequisite for a major uptake of renewables," Smith says. "If you want to move to a situation where you can attract investment in renewable then you have to have the ability to sell to the grid. Right now, we are behind the eight-ball on that. But we are working with the countries to try to ensure that legislation is put in place." Sources for this post: Bloomberg New Energy Finance Week in Review; Business Green.

Two recent technical papers published by the InterAmerican Development Bank highlight the economic and societal benefits of renewable energy and energy storage technologies to Latin America and the Caribbean: Societal Benefits from Renewable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean and Potential for Energy Storage in Combination with Renewable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Caribbean nations, including St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands, committed last week to start replacing diesel generators, the most common means of producing electricity on islands, with renewable sources like wind, solar or geothermal.

Because diesel must be imported, the cost of electricity on the islands is generally very high, which makes renewable alternatives economically as well as environmentally attractive.

The countries signed the pact at a multiday meeting organized by the Carbon War Room, a nonprofit organization that Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, established to fight climate change. More here.

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are attracting more clean energy investment as governments strengthen policy support and local supply chains expand, according to Climatescope 2013, a new report from the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

The LAC region captured 6% of the total $268.7 billion invested worldwide in clean energy in 2012, up from 5.7% in 2011. (For purposes of the Climatescope analysis, clean energy is defined as wind, solar, biomass, small hydro, geothermal and other renewable power generation, and biofuels.)

“The rapidly falling costs of clean technologies such as solar and wind power combined with an improved investment climate means that clean energy generation in the region is now truly affordable,” said Nancy Lee, General Manager of the MIF.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has established new targets for the incorporation of renewable energy in to the region's energy mix. The initial targets are: 20%, 28% and 47% by 2017, 2022 and 2027, respectively, for the contribution of renewable energy to total electricity generation in the region. The high cost of energy and the overdependence on expensive imported fossil fuels are contributing to the drive to adopt new clean energy technologies. It is estimated that more than 90% of the region’s commercial energy consumption comes from petroleum products, according to the announcement.