BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Monday said it further assists its borrowing member countries (BMC) to strengthen and reform their regulatory frameworks to better facilitate private investments in renewable energy.
The region’s premier financial institution said that it had released a new publication titled ”The Minimum Regulatory Function for the Electricity Sector in Caribbean Countries,” which is the first in a series to be provided under its Accelerated Sustainable Energy and Resilience Transition 2030 (ASERT-2030) Framework.
The framework is a crucial strategy of the CDB’s Energy Sector Policy and Strategy, aimed at encouraging and supporting BMCs to pursue, expedite, and scale-up investments in renewable energy.
Joseph Williams, coordinator of the CDB’s Sustainable Energy Unit, said the series will add to the existing body of knowledge that addresses challenges associated with implementing sustainable energy activities and strengthen the Bank’s leadership role in the sector.
“This publication demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to sustainable energy and is a significant milestone, as it was a key recommendation emerging from the robust regional regulatory ASERT-2030 Dialogue held earlier this year among stakeholders, including BMCs, regulators, utilities, and regional and international partners. Therefore, it reflects meaningful engagement and strong consensus,” he said.
The MRF includes critical elements that should provide clarity, certainty, and transparency to potential private renewable energy investors. It will be used as a benchmark for identifying gaps within the regulatory frameworks of BMCs and defining the reforms and capacity-strengthening needs that CDB and other financiers will support.
“While CDB is providing initial leadership for this intervention, the intention is for other relevant regional agencies to provide management and coordination of subsequent reform and capacity-strengthening work to complement other interventions within the sector,” the CDB said.
It said the MRF aims to position Caribbean countries to tackle the persistent problem of inadequacy within the electricity sector enabling framework, spur improvement, significantly de-risking the sector, and help unlock lower-cost private investments in renewable energy to help BMCs meet their energy security objectives, climate change targets and build resilience in the region.
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