Mr. Joseph Williams Programme Manager, Energy Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat said it is rather appropriate and timely for CARICOM Energy Week 2013 to be launched in Trinidad and Tobago at a time when Prime Minister, the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has responsibility for Energy in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, is the Chair of the Community. This CARICOM Energy Week Launch, may also be seen as a fitting climax to an eventful year in the energy capital of CARICOM which included the historic event of the approval by CARICOM Energy Ministers of the CARICOM Energy Policy, and the establishment of Regional targets for renewable energy.
He explained that “therefore, strategies for addressing economic growth and the external debt, over the long-term will necessarily require that the issue of the high cost of energy in the various territories, be addressed in parallel."
he continued: " On the other hand, pursuing the development of clean energy (including natural gas) and renewable energy options can provide solutions to the challenge of high energy cost, through fuel substitution, which provides lower and more stable costs substitution. Energy efficiency improvements can go a far way towards the decoupling of economic growth from increased energy demand. In addition, a Community’s strategy of pursuing the development of its clean energy and renewable energy options along with the development of its energy efficiency strategy will provide some opportunities for responding to the impact of ‘graduation’. This is so because, given the nexus between the energy sector and climate change problem, there are opportunities for accessing developmental resources/financing under the Climate Change and green financing umbrella.
Therefore, there seems to be an opportunity for Community level approaches and strategies to be advanced toward effectively accessing the available resources.
As I have observed elsewhere, notwithstanding the critical importance of the trade-in-energy dimension of our Community arrangements, the areas of sustainable energy and clean energy developments provide a good opportunity for functional cooperation on energy. Given the Region’s constraints in terms of limited capacity, the geographic distribution of the territories and the energy resources, and the cluster of experience around the various resources, it is only logical that Member States seek to cooperate and collaborate in areas of capacity-building, research and development in the energy sector. In fact, this is a key focus and utility of the CARICOM Energy Policy.
However, there are challenging and sometimes thorny issues to be addressed within the various territories; and the national energy week activities being observed as part of the CARICOM Energy Week, provide opportunities for advancing focussed dialogues around some of these which include:
– The issue of reform of the electricity sector to remove monopoly over generation
– The issue of establishing fair tariffs; also restructuring of tariffs to be more cost reflective so that economic development of alternates can take place
– Regulation of the sector both for electricity and transport sectors, to address various market imperfections;
– Policies and regulations for the importation of appliances and vehicles in relation to minimum efficiency and performance standards – these need to be carefully managed given the implications for commitment under the WTO
– Issues of inter-connection of energy infrastructure (gas and electricity) which will require significantly increased cooperation – and which are critical for the economic development of the resources in some territories – but questions remain as to whether such arrangements are not simply substituting one kind of dependency for another?
– Fiscal incentives to encourage investments in EE and RE while at same time encouraging behaviour modification with respect to consumption patterns
– How to structure incentives in the context of fiscal consolidation being pursued by countries;
– How to effectively address the information gap to support decisions; there needs to be rigorous analyses to establish benefits and costs over various time horizons, so that decisions can be more evidence-based.
– What are the appropriate instruments to facility grid feed-in for renewable energy; net metering/net-billing, versus Feed-in-tariffs; Renewable energy Portfolio standards establishing what are fair price for energy supply
– Role of the utilities in transition
Through the theme of CARICOM Energy Week, there is a call for urgent action, to recognize that as individuals, citizens, businesses, and governments, our energy future will be dependent on the policies, strategies and actions that we pursue NOW. The theme is also a call to all, to exercise responsible actions for the benefit of future generations. Therefore, we must reflect and re-set, recognizing the emerging potency of the green and clean themes, and need for increased stewardship to ensure economic and environmental sustainability. As we do so, we recognize that we will need the support from our development partners who have been supporting sustainable energy development in the Region over the years. We express thanks for their support continued over the years and, in particular, the Government of Germany for support of CARICOM Energy Week activities in Member States and at the regional level.
"I invite one and all: students, housewives, business persons, professionals – from all spheres, policy makers, indeed all the public sector, private sector and NGO’s, to Reflect and Re-set for clean and green energy, energy efficiency and energy diversification, recognizing that “A Secure and Sustainable Energy Future begins Now!”
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