Accelerating private investment for a secure, resilient, and low carbon energy future through the Caribbean Regional Energy Policy Dialogue 2023
Energy services are key for improving lives across the Caribbean. The region experiences some of the highest electricity costs globally due to their heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels for power generation, thus impacting their macroeconomic balances and increasing exposure to oil price volatility. Nevertheless, the region is poised to take advantage of clean energy solutions such as wind, solar and geothermal. [1]
In just a few days, the IDBG will host the Caribbean Regional Energy Policy Dialogue in Washington DC with eight Caribbean countries: The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. This event seeks to bring together key energy stakeholders in the Caribbean, including Ministries of Energy (or equivalent), regulators, electric utilities, relevant regional centres, and the private sector. They will discuss critical energy challenges and opportunities for the region to enhance its energy security, improve reliability, affordability, and sustainability of energy services, as well as share lessons learned that support decision making.
The event presents an opportunity to network and share with the market ongoing developments to attract private investments to the sector. It will also provide an opportunity to the IDBG and other development partners to listen first-hand the views from the governments and stakeholders to better support them achieve their objectives for the sector. Last, but not least, it will be an opportunity to listen to private sector investors on how they view the energy transition and the trends and opportunities for investment.
The Dialogue is structured in three blocks. In the first block, each Caribbean country will present the energy landscape in their country, highlighting the challenges, status of the sustainable energy transition, and opportunities for market development. This will be followed by the second block where the private sector presents how they are investing in the Caribbean, highlighting the barriers that need to be removed for further investments and how disruptive technologies can help to close energy target gaps. The third block will comprise a facilitated discussion amongst ministers, regulators, and utilities for a deep dive into the main energy challenges faced by the region and potential synergies. It will also provide an opportunity to present the support they need from development partners.
In conclusion, we believe that this forum will open many opportunities for a region with great potential for energy transformation, as well as kickstart discussions to ensure its energy security, reliability, and adaptation to global challenges.
This blog post was developed in collaboration with Terry-Ann Segree, Private Finance Operation Senior Specialist at IDB Lab and Gianfranco Carassale, Invest Management Principal Officer for Infrastructure and Energy at IDB Invest
[1] https://www.iadb.org/en/ove/climate-change-caribbean-small-island-states
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