By: Staff Writer
June 7, 2022
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) director of projects says that the private sector needs to get more involved in the energy transition for the region’s survival.
The 52nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the CDB is taking place during June 1-16, where leaders from around the region will discuss topical themes for development around the region. High on the agenda was the renewable energy transition, where Daniel Best, director of projects, CDB, said it “must happen,” and also said is, “happening for our very survival, especially for Caribbean countries as part of small island developing states.”
Acknowledging the realities Caribbean countries face, Mr Best also added: “The issue is how do we navigate the transition in a context that takes our realities into account, while ensuring that we take advantage of the opportunity?”
Putting on haste towards a sustainable energy future is critical and also how the “enabling environment” in the private sector can aid individual member countries at their different stages of the current hydrocarbon dependency. “We also know that much depends on an enabling environment for private sector investment, since the vast majority of investments must come from the private sector.”
A “real conversation” must now be had around the CDB’s core objectives for this energy transition and that is “support the acceleration of the transition while preserving key fundamental goals of affordability, resilience, and energy security.”
Francesco La Camera, director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), also said: “We consider electrification and energy efficiency to be the main decarbonisation driver enabled by renewables, green hydrogen and sustainable biomass. Renewable energy is now the cheapest option in most regions dominating New Energy addition year on year.”
He added: “The energy transition is far from being on track,” but with a “holistic policy framework, serious investment international cooperation, the energy transition can be accelerated.”
Christopher Straughn, sustainable energy specialist, Sustainable Energy Unit, CDB, added: “The main energy sector challenges facing the member countries fall under two headings, climate change and energy security. As we are aware, the global energy sector is driven by the fact that fossil fuels which remained the dominant form of energy are not sustainable, and are the key culprit in the climate crisis.”
He added: “Renewable energy can help CD BMCs (Borrowing member countries) eliminate the relatively miniscule contribution to growth global carbon emissions, while simultaneously addressing in part, other climate related issues such as low resilience. This given that renewable energy options are often more amenable to decentralized solutions like distributed regeneration, and mini grids.”