CARIBBEAN-Caribbean calls for ‘SIDS- appropriate’ green energy technology

ABU DHABI, CMC -Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries say small island developing states (SIDS) “appropriate” renewable energy technologies remain a challenge even as these countries accelerate the transition to renewable energy as part of their sustainable development and response to climate change.

Dominica’s Minister of Energy, Dr. Vince Henderson, said that SIDS, such as those in the Caribbean, must balance competing interests on a tiny landmass, including agriculture and food security, housing, tourism, and energy security.

In addition, Henderson, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Business and Trade, told a news conference here that space remains a challenge “because you can only have so many solar panels, you can only install, you know, so many wind turbines.

“And this is part of the reality of small island states that we need to accept fully,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 14th Session of the two-day International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Assembly which ends here on Thursday.

Henderson was joined at a news conference by his Grenadian and Vincentian colleagues Kerryne Z. James and Benarva Browne, as well as Malta’s Minister for the Environment, Energy and Regeneration of the Grand Harbour, Miriam Dalli.

The SIDS ministers fielded questions from the media after the “SIDS Ministerial – Charting a Resilient and Sustainable Energy Future for SIDS,” during which Barbados’ Energy Minister, Senator Lisa Cummins, urged SIDS to lead globally and use their collective voices to champion the energy transition and climate action.

Henderson thanked IRENA for its “constant engagement” with SIDS, especially over the last decade, but called on the international organization “to focus more attention on SIDS-appropriate technology, not just words, but in action.

“We have to start utilising and harnessing the huge potential that our oceans provide. We are large-ocean states,” he said, adding that SIDS made the call at their conference in Samoa in 2014 and will repeat it in Antigua next month.

“But we need to see some real action in our efforts to harness that huge potential. We talk about the blue economy. This is the blue economy. This is the basis of the blue economy,” said Henderson, whose country is forging ahead with geothermal energy development.

“We have fisheries, but we also have energy as a source of power that can help propel SIDS,” he said, referring to ocean technology.

“Because if we’re talking about the transition to renewable energy, we must never forget that it must be a just transition. And for some reason, in the conversation today, we overlooked that I think we were more anxious to highlight some of our challenges,” he said, referring to the speeches during the ministerial.

Henderson said SIDS needs to remind the major polluters in the world who are responsible for warming the climate “that they, too, have an obligation, a moral obligation.

“I think it may soon become a legal obligation to ensure we can just transition. When I say just, it means that our transition to renewable energy will not burden our people. In fact, they will benefit from it.

“And I’m talking about paying their bills. So reducing the cost of electricity.”

Henderson said that about ten years ago, IRENA joined SIDS DOCK – a United Nations-recognised group of 32 small islands and low-lying developing states across the globe – in Cabo Verde “when we were pushing intelligent grids.

“And today, we’re still struggling with grids that can at least accept intermittent renewable energy sources. So even while pushing wind and solar, we are still not getting the grids ready to accept them.”

SIDS DOCK, whose secretariat is located in Belize, is so named because it is designed as a “DOCKing station” to connect the energy sector in SIDS with the global markets for finance and sustainable energy technologies.

Henderson said Dominica is “blessed with tremendous geothermal potential” and has signed a contract to build a 10-megawatt geothermal power plant.

“We can produce ten times more than we need for domestic use. And this is why we aim to produce green hydrogen and ammonia as fuel sources that we can also export.”

He said that Dominica is also promoting, along with Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis, “to interconnect our islands so that we can make better use of the huge sources of geothermal energy that we have.”

The Dominica minister said that St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Dominica all have geothermal potential.

“We are all moving forward to develop our resources to provide power for the entire Caribbean without putting up one solar panel—but I still like solar panels. But I think we really need to rethink how we do that transition. And that is one of the key points that I wish to share today: really rethinking how we transition. I don’t think we are on the right path.”

Henderson said that he has seen progress over the last ten years, with “a lot of kilowatts placed in all countries, not necessarily on the grid.

“But we have seen the installations, the training, the capacity-building, and the financing instruments that have been created. But it will still reach a point where we won’t have enough space to put solar panels to power our daily lives and have energy for development.”

Meanwhile, James, Minister for Climate Resilience, the Environment, and Renewable Energy in St. George’s, said Grenada’s peak demand is 33 megawatts, which might seem like “a little bit…

“But to put into perspective the energy transition for us, we have looked at quite a number of different projects, and we have looked at a policy framework that would enable us to create the environment that would attract investors to come to our islands to develop our RE (renewable energy) potentials.”

She said IRENA is critical to creating an environment where SIDS can collaborate more.

“I think if we take a collaborative approach, pool procurement, it will assist us in some of the challenges that we had,” she said, noting Malta’s intervention during the ministerial that, as regards energy, the experiences of small island states, regardless of their developmental status, are similar.

She echoed Henderson’s call for “SIDS-appropriate” renewable energy technologies.

“Most times, when we get any opportunity to invest or seek opportunities for RE for our islands, it’s projected on us. It’s not like we are going to them with our proposals.

“And I say them in terms of organizations that have the financial capabilities to help us on our RE journey,” James said.

She said that SIDS are large ocean states, although they are often framed as small island states.

“And so we have to see how we can capitalize on what we have to ensure climate change doesn’t impact us as it has done over the years.

James said SIDS also has to look at “legislating some of the ambitious targets that we have set out because without the proper checks and balances to hold the big emitters accountable, where are we going in the whole energy transition?”

As politicians, James said that energy ministers must ensure that “the just transition doesn’t leave out those persons at the grassroots within their countries.

“So, some can’t necessarily invest in solar PV because their house is not even appropriate to accommodate the panels.

“That, too, is a part of the transition that I honestly don’t think we honestly look into as small island developing states.”

The Grenadian minister noted that most SIDS have concessions on solar PV modules and electric and hybrid vehicles.

“But the question that we have to ask ourselves is how much of our people at the local level can capitalize on these things? So we have our responsibility internationally, but as politicians and policymakers, we do have a responsibility to ensure that the just transition does not leave anybody out within our sectors and within our societies.”

Browne said the ministerial speaker “heard the same story from the different islands.

“And that shows our commonality and why having discussions like this is important,” she said, supporting Henderson’s calls for SIDS-appropriate technologies.

“I think that is a very, very timely intervention; that’s an essential one,” said Browne, the Minister of Urban Development, Seaport, Grenadines Affairs, and Local Government in her homeland.

She told reporters that Antigua also has to deal with the competition between land usage.

“So balancing those are all things I would like to discuss. I would also like to discuss building capacity and learning from each other, which this conference will encourage. We all have different experiences, and it allows for the technical people to sit as well as we would sit down and have discussions or technical staff are learning from each other,” Browne said.

On Wednesday, IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that one of the main questions regarding SIDS is the market size, which “sometimes does not now provide for the business case for new grants.

“But we can work together. We are working together, and Dominica can showcase how we have finalized the financial close for the geothermal plant in Dominica.”

La Camera said this was “impossible to think” five years ago or even six months ago.

“So putting different actors together — Israel’s technology, Iceland’s knowledge, support from the World Bank, political support to have this project, at the end of it, being able to have geothermal for Dominica,” he told CMC, adding that IRENA is also starting to work with St. Kitts-Nevis.

“In this case, for small islands that have geothermal potential, other areas have other opportunities, but we think that for the small islands, we have to look not only at concessional loans for funding but also need a share of grants to be palatable for investment,” the IRENA chief told CMC.