Senior Minister for coordinating the Productive Sector, Kerrie Symmonds, has described the three-day IRENA-Caribbean Cooperation for Fostering Energy Transition Investments and Finance Conference, which opened in Barbados today, as “vital”.
Mr. Symmonds, who is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, told the opening ceremony at Hilton Barbados Resort, that the move towards renewable energy “is the cornerstone” of all that this world would be able to achieve in the future, thus making the forum crucial.
During the keynote address, the Minister said there was a need to expedite the execution of renewable energy projects, as well as mobilise appropriate levels of financing, especially blended financing, because the private sector must be on board.
He continued: “We are now at an unenviable moment, quite frankly, we’re approaching a tipping point. We are now, as we approach COP28, at a stage where there is no further room for yet another promissory note to our people being returned with a stamp mark declined.
“The citizens of the small island developing states (SIDS) of the world must now … experience first-hand that there is a transition, in a real sense, towards the renewable energy era in which we are expecting to live. And not only that there is a transition, but that transition is a just transition.”
Mr. Symmonds explained that a just transition would include the need to direct financing towards climate change adaptation strategies, for example, building resilience on the grid. He pointed out that traditionally, private enterprise had an appetite for renewable energy efforts in mitigation as opposed to adaptation.
“The appetite is found in new technological solutions – solar, wind, … biofuels…retrofitting of buildings, those are the mitigation efforts, but adaptation has also to be financed.
“This country has over 1,500 kilometres of electric wire run across its landscape. To move all of that underground is going to cost us billions of dollars. But there is no immediate solution for that level of investment. But for that investment not to take place leaves the country naked and exposed with respect to the visit of another hurricane,” he stated.
The Minister said there was an urgent need for 50-year loans for SIDS, with respect to climate resilience and renewable energy. He outlined that a precedent had been set in the aftermath of World War II.
The three-day high level meeting is being hosted by the Government of Barbados and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), through the SIDS Lighthouses Initiative, in partnership with the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.
Its objective is to promote an environment conducive to energy transition investments, and facilitate access to affordable and appropriate forms of finance for the implementation of energy transition projects in the Caribbean SIDS.