Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency inaugurated in Barbados

BRIDGETOWN, 28 October 2015 - The Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) was today inaugurated during a ceremony held in the capital of Barbados.

This follows the decision of the 36th Regular meeting of the heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to establish the centre as a regional implementation hub, with Barbados as the host country. The regional centre was developed and promoted by the CARICOM Secretariat in close partnership with the Small Island Developing States Sustainable Energy and Climate Resilience Initiative (SIDS DOCK) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Financial support is being provided by the governments of Austria and Germany. CCREEE will be part of a wider network of regional sustainable energy centres for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Africa, the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean. Freundel Stuart, Prime Minister of Barbados and Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, stressed that the urgent establishment of the centre was in line with the region’s strategic goals and focus on sustainable development. Confirming his country’s support for the centre, he added that “the CCREEE will act as a regional hub and think-tank for sustainable energy issues and activities in the region”.

Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Secretary-General, Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said: “The centre’s main role will be to assist CARICOM Member States in implementing the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Roadmap and Strategy (C-SERMS), as well as their respective national energy strategies and targets. The centre is an important contribution of CARICOM to the upcoming Climate Summit in Paris.”

Ambassador Vince Henderson, Chairman of SIDS DOCK, added: “We consider CCREEE and the wider network of centres for Small Island Developing States to be an essential contribution to make the Sustainable Energy for All initiative a reality for our economies and societies. The centres are expected to cooperate closely on the SIDS-SIDS energy agenda and will form not only a strong advocacy, but also a strong cooperation group.”

Pradeep Monga, UNIDO Director and Special Representative of the Director General on Energy, called “CCREEE a critical mechanism for up-scaling national efforts, particularly in the areas of project execution, capacity development, and knowledge and data management, as well as investment and business promotion, within the sustainable energy sector”.Ambassador Mikael Barfod, Delegation of the European Union to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, highlighted the creation of CCREEE as a major milestone and pledged support for the initiative.

According to Martin Ledolter, Managing Director of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), “the centre will empower local people within the Caribbean to benefit from the growing global sustainable energy markets and participate in the emerging opportunities for south-south and north-south technology and knowledge transfer”.

The inauguration of CCREEE will also be part of the Caribbean Energy Week, which will be observed across the region from 8 to 14 November under the theme “EmPOWERING our Sustainable Development”.” More

 

 

© Climate War Room

Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 2014 Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

The Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) took place in Kingston, Jamaica, from 2-4 July 2013.

This meeting was the first stop along the road to the Conference in Apia, Samoa in September 2014 and provided an opportunity for the Caribbean SIDS to: assess progress and remaining gaps in implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action and the Mauritius Strategy for Implementation; seek a renewed political commitment; identify new and emerging challenges and opportunities for sustainable development of SIDS; and identify priorities for the sustainable development of SIDS to be considered in the elaboration of the post-2015 UN development agenda.

Approximately 100 participants, including representatives of Caribbean governments, UN and regional agencies and organizations, and Major Groups, attended the three-day session. After two days of panel presentations and interactive discussions, government delegates met to identify priorities and draft the outcome document. This document was negotiated in a formal setting on Thursday. After two readings of the document, the twelve remaining delegates began a final round of negotiations at midnight and adopted the 44-paragraph Kingston Outcome of the Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States at 4:55 am on Friday, 5 July 2014. The Kingston Outcome will be the basis of the Caribbean regional position at the Inter-regional Preparatory Meeting to be held in Barbados from 26-28 August 2013.

The Summary of this meeting is now available in PDF format http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb0849e.pdf and in HTML format at http://www.iisd.ca/vol08/enb0849e.html

 

A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE MEETING

“As a man sow, shall he reap, and I know that talk is cheap.” – Bob Marley

A year after governments at Rio+20 called for the convening of a third conference on SIDS, substantive preparations are now underway. The Caribbean regional preparatory meeting was the first stop along the road to the Third International Conference on SIDS, in Apia, Samoa in September 2014. It provided an opportunity for the Caribbean SIDS to assess progress and remaining gaps in implementation of the BPOA and MSI, identify new and emerging challenges and opportunities for sustainable development of SIDS, and identify priorities for the sustainable development of SIDS to be considered in the elaboration of the post-2015 UN development agenda.

This brief analysis will examine how the process evolved during the three-day preparatory meeting and how this will feed into the overall preparatory process for the 2014 Apia Conference. More