As Mark Grundy sees it, the Caribbean’s difficulties in moving to renewable energy are best seen from the air.
“Solar and wind? You fly over Barcelona and Germany, it’s everywhere,” said Mr. Grundy, the communications director of the non-profit organisation Carbon War Room. “You fly over the Caribbean, you can’t see it.”
More than 100 delegates — including representatives of 12 Caribbean countries — met at Mosquito Island last week for a three-day summit aimed at changing that.
“The people who will suffer the first from climate change will be small island states, so what we did here was we brought together governments, we brought together clean energy companies, and we asked the governments where are the roadblocks to just getting on and doing it,” said Sir Richard Branson, Mosquito’s owner and the summit’s organiser.
At the end of the meeting, six Caribbean countries and territories, including the Virgin Islands, signed agreements pledging to work with the CWR over the next five years in order to accelerate the use of solar, wind and geothermal generation across the region.
CWR aims to overcome the market barriers that prevent renewable energy from taking root, Mr. Grundy said. The group brings in consultants to help countries perform feasibility studies, prepare bidding documents, and attract the attention of large companies that otherwise would be reluctant to commit resources to the region’s relatively small projects, he added.
See the Feb. 13, 2014 edition for full coverage.
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