CARICOM member states endorse regional energy policy

Wigton wind farm in Manchester, Jamaica. PHOTO/Jamaica Gleaner

CARICOM (Caribbean Community) member states have endorsed a regional energy policy that will guide the 15-member grouping in its pursuit of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The endorsement of the energy policy was implemented during a meeting of the CARICOM Council of Trade and Economic Development held in Trinidad & Tobago this past weekend.

The goal of the regional energy policy is the fundamental transformation of the energy sector of all CARICOM member states through the provision of secure and sustainable supplies of energy in a manner which minimizes energy waste in all sectors.

Targets towards such efficiency have been set in the policy.

Dominica’s Energy Minister Rayburn Blackmoore, who chaired the meeting, described the adoption of the policy as “historic, bearing in mind this year marks 40 years since the oil crisis.

“We recognize therefore from a collective standpoint if we are to really realize economic development there must be something deliberate by way of a policy direction,” he said, adding there is a need to develop the energy sector to reduce the cost of energy.

Blackmoore said that the policy document in itself takes into account the efforts of all member states and “it will provide a road map with specific timelines which will serve as a guide for member states”.

The meeting also discussed matters such as the development and implementation of the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Roadmap and Strategy (C-SERMS), the management if energy information systems, and the development of geothermal energy, the Secretariat added. -(CMC)