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    The High-Level Caribbean Sustainable Energy Seminar

    By Keith R | July 31, 2008

    Topics: Biofuels, Energy & the Environment, Environmental Protection, Renewable Sources | 1 Comment »

          
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    Temas Observation: This seminar is a follow-up to the meeting held in Guyana last year, where some of the same promises were made. Let’s hope that not another year must pass before something more concrete emerges from this initiative.

    ________________________

    From the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):

    Plans to unleash the Caribbean region’s renewable energy potential gain momentum at Bahamas meeting

    Three international organizations pledge support, call for overhaul of regulations to encourage new investments and combat soaring fuel costs

    Three international organizations agreed to assist the Caribbean to develop renewable and efficient energy programs in response to crippling energy price shocks at a meeting in the Bahamas last week.

    Representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) made the commitment at a High Level Caribbean Regional Sustainable Energy Seminar that was held on July 23–24, 2008 at the Sheraton Cable Beach Resort in Nassau, The Bahamas.

    The pledge was made within the context of the Caribbean Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Bioenergy Action Program (CREBAP), which was launched in Georgetown, Guyana on August 6, 2007, with IDB, OAS, IICA and the Government of Guyana as founding members.

    The Nassau seminar was complemented by a Business Roundtable on the Energy Sector sponsored by the U. S. government on July 24, 2008. Both events were attended by energy and agro-energy stakeholders of the Caribbean, including ministers of government from the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Suriname, the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

    Discussion at the meeting centered on how to remove the numerous legal and regulatory barriers that are blocking the development of new sources of renewable energy in the region.

    “The nations of the Caribbean have a historic opportunity to become leaders in the adoption of renewable sources of energy,” said IDB Energy Specialist Christiaan Gischler. “There are proven and cost-effective solutions in solar, wind and agroenergy that could be developed in the short term and provide relief to soaring oil import bills. The technical and financial challenges to adopting these solutions are manageable, but only if governments agree to create a legal and regulatory environment that encourages investment.”

    Gischler said the CREBAP is a vehicle that can provide opportunities for improving coordination among the many entities working in the region.

    Cletus Springer, director of the OAS Department of Sustainable Development, said he hoped the seminar would help to spur other governments and international agencies in the energy sector to sign on to the CREBAP initiative. “We hope that the regional organizations like CARICOM and OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States) will join the CREPAB effort,” Springer added, “and we are urging CARICOM member states to identify Focal Points for each country to constitute a Task Force for the CREBAP,” he added.

    At the conclusion of the seminar, Minister Richard Frederick and Minister Guy Joseph from Saint Lucia offered to host the first meeting of the Task Force, which will gather at the end of September 2008, in Saint Lucia, with the purpose of defining the specific areas of activity of CREBAP and identifying the executing agency for the initiative.

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    One Response to “The High-Level Caribbean Sustainable Energy Seminar”

    1. Saint-Lucia Says:

      […] The High-Level Caribbean Sustainable Energy SeminarAt the conclusion of the seminar, Minister Richard Frederick and Minister Guy Joseph from Saint Lucia offered to host the first meeting of the Task Force, which will gather at the end of September 2008, in Saint Lucia, with the purpose … […]

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