Climate Change mitigation opportunities in the Energy sector for the Caribbean region

The “Climate change mitigation opportunities in the energy sector for the Caribbean region” has been prepared as part of the implementation of the Caribbean Regional Subcomponent of the MEAs Program for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP MEAs)1. The study has being executed with the collaboration of a team of experts from CUBAENERGIA 2 and UNEP Risø Centre3.

The objectives of the study are twofold, the provision of support to Caribbean Countries to actively consider participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM); and the provision of value added information to decision makers in the region interested in linking energyclimate change benefits as part of the on-going and future scaling up efforts for Renewable Energy (RE) dissemination in the Caribbean.

The study is based on an analysis of the mitigation potential in 16 countries in the Caribbean Region, due to the interconnection of renewable energy to the grid, the modeling of in-country energy sector development and its associated emissions for different scenarios; that include both the “business as usual” and “mitigation” due to the scaling up of Renewable Energy Technology.

The study also looks at the experience from participation in the CDM in the region and narrows on some of the perceived institutional challenges, especially from the perspective of Programme of Activities (CDM PoA) development in the field of renewable energy for the Caribbean Region, as precursors for evolving mitigation activities (under broader climate finance opportunities), by looking in closer depth at two potential PoAs in the region.

As well as many other SIDS 4, the Caribbean Countries are “heavily dependent on imported petroleum products, largely for transport and electricity generation. This is likely to continue in the short to medium term, however the efficiency of such use can be greatly increased through appropriate technology and national energy policies which promote more economic and environmentally beneficial energy use.

Several constraints to the large-scale commercial use of renewable energy resources remain, including technology development, investment costs, available indigenous skills and management capabilities”. Seven of the countries in the area are currently members of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)5, with an additional three currently in the process of becoming members6.

In this context, the electricity sector generation based on thermal fossil fuel based sources is in the order of 93.2% with renewable energy sources amounting to a mere 6.8% of total installed capacity (mainly from hydro resources in selected countries).