Latest update April 7th, 2025 12:08 AM
Caricom must pursue renewable energy—Director
Some of the officials at Thursday’s renewable energy meeting
It is important that, if the region is to continue on a path of economic and social development, energy sources should be economically affordable and equitably distributed.
This is according to Director of Sustainable Development within the Caricom Secretariat, Garfield Barnwell.
During his address to the second Project Steering Committee meeting of the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP), on Thursday at the Caricom Secretariat, Barnwell said that the Secretariat’s energy programme is structured in a manner to build the foundations that could lead the region to provide its people with available, affordable, reliable and sustainable energy sources based on the indigenous resources.
He added that adequate institutional capacity and financing must be in place for the development of energy resources and the supporting industries, services and legislative and policy frameworks.
The Caribbean Community Secretariat has developed an Energy Programme lasting from next year to 2010 with the goal of increased regional co-operation in energy to address a number of critical issues, particularly matters relating to energy security and the transformation of the region towards a more sustainable energy path.
Barnwell said that the vision of the Energy Programme is that, through its own efforts and those done in conjunction with international development partners, there will be a broadening of the regional energy mix.
This will be done so that amount of renewable energy sources will be increased from present levels.
The Latin America and Caribbean Initiative for Sustainable Development (ILAC) has set a goal to ensure that by the year 2010 the region as a whole will have at least 10 per cent of its energy consumption met by renewable sources, he added.
CREDP is but one activity under the Secretariat’s Energy Programme, he added, which seeks to bring about the move towards a sustainable energy path.
The efforts of the past four years have brought about an increased awareness of the work that needs to be done if we are serious about increasing the use of renewable energy.
Questions are being asked and responses demanded by the region’s people, policy makers and businessmen of its technicians and technocrats as to how renewables can be integrated in a sustainable manner into society, he noted.
Additionally, investors are increasingly showing a willingness to look at renewable energy projects, and more utility companies are willing to integrate these into the energy generation mix, Barnwell said.
Guyana, Cuba and Belize were represented at the meeting yesterday, while Trinidad, Jamaica, Dominica and St. Lucia joined the meeting via video conferencing.
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