By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
Tuesday November 15, 2022
One year after becoming the UNFCCC Global Ambassador, CEO of Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, Racquel Moses got together with other game changers at this year’s COP 27 event. She urged those present to think of the Caribbean as much more than sun, sand and sea, but also the issues that plague the region today, such as deadly hurricanes, loss and damage of its coasts, and ecosystems that support the food chain. And in the same breath, Moses put forward the region as being on the cusp of becoming an energy nexus. What does she mean? To the UN Global Ambassador, its means benefiting from a green economy, where the Caribbean people do not just survive, but thrive. For that she says investors are needed.
Speaking at “Accelerating the Global Energy Transition”, dubbed a Marrakech Partnership event which showcases game changers from across the world, who are demonstrating how the Climate Action Pathway on Energy is brought to life through bold ideas, innovation and energetic leadership, Moses shared her story on becoming actively involved in climate change. The catalyst she says came while thinking of the future her unborn child would face in the coming decades.
Today she is involved in the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, where she represents some 28 countries in the region, where they are able to coordinate with governments and climate sector deals to advance the energy ambition, aligning the conservation of energy with the climate ambitions of the region.
One of the goals set out she says is to achieve 90 percent renewable energy within the region. In doing that, she says they have begun to pursue offshore wind projects, solar and floating solar, hydro energy, where she remarks the options vary as the Caribbean is vast. She notes right now there is about 17 percent commitments to renewables, with many nations at home listing ambitions at 50 percent achievable, while others strive to reach to 100 percent mark, launching aggressive campaigns to get there, not only because of the high energy prices, but due to climate mitigation. And despite not having much carbon emissions, the region understands the assignment of reducing global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius.
She remarked nevertheless that her home country of Trinidad and Tobago, while heavily dependent on oil and gas as its main deriver of income, hydrogen remains an important aspect, as it also manufactures ammonia products. Geothermal potential in the eastern Caribbean, which has been widely supported by the OECS with implementation happening in Dominica, the output of energy has resulted in an enormous amount where they are now required to find commercial partners if they are to continue funding geothermal energy.
And with her home country Trinidad and Tobago requiring 2.5GW for Hydrogen, she says rather than looking at these issues as separate things, they ought to be seen as a single energy system. Moses says the region now has a potential of a single energy market linked through undersea cable through the island chain of the region, to sell or buy geothermal energy or wind in order to produce a net export green hydrogen market.
So she urged those present to think of the Caribbean, not just as victims or on the front lines of climate change, but being at the energy nexus, because there is now a clean opportunity, a climate justice issue for the region, benefit from the green economy, it requires in order to survive and the need for investors to come onboard and support in that effort.