Joint commitment to energy security

Tue, Jan 27th 2015, 12:11 AM

The Bahamas and 25 other countries, plus the Organization of American States, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the World Bank Group and other international organizations issued a joint statement at the Caribbean Energy Security Summit (CESS) in Washington, D.C. yesterday, committing the region to transformation of its energy systems.

In the statement, states and parties recognized that energy security, access to energy, economic development, environmental and climate goals benefit from and contribute to sustainable, modern, clean and diversified energy sectors. They committed to supporting access to sustainable, reliable and affordable energy services, with a particular focus on cleaner alternative energy resources, for all citizens in the region.

The statement also noted that although legal and regulatory reforms have been implemented in some countries to introduce renewable energy technologies and sustainable energy management approaches to attract the required investment in the Caribbean energy sector, in principle more work on policy and regulatory issues is required to fully embrace the opportunities derived from sustainable energy.

For example, The Bahamas has introduced a National Energy Policy and has amended the Electricity Act to allow for renewable energy self-generation, but nobody would suggest that all the policy and regulatory work required has been done.

"We state our commitment to support the Caribbean's transformation of the energy systems of Caribbean states, to share lessons learned through new and expanded regional information networks, to report progress in relevant fora," the signatories said.

They committed themselves to pursuit of comprehensive, planning-based and research-driven approaches to energy transition, including implementation of pilot and demonstration projects, based on successful models so that individual clean energy projects are part of a fully integrated, climate-resilient energy transition plan toward clean sustainable energy for all.

Parties also committed - specifically for Caribbean countries - to what the statement called "necessary and specific reforms, including recommendations from the 2013 CARICOM Energy Policy and the outcome of the 2015 Dominican Energy Pact, to support policy and regulatory environments that facilitate the introduction of new technologies favoring sustainable and clean energy that provide legal certainty for investors and improved predictability in price and supply for users."

The statement looked forward to alignment, where viable, of national legal and regulatory approaches to facilitate greater clean energy investment throughout the region, provided that countries can access finance and other resources on affordable terms, to set the stage for future electrical interconnection in keeping with the goals of Connect 2022. Parties committed to promote and develop affordable: (i) no- or lower carbon electricity generation through wind, solar, geothermal power, hydropower, bioenergy, ocean energy, energy recovery from waste, and other clean energies; and (ii) energy efficiency measures.

The statement also called for open, transparent, competitive and criteria-based processes, including liberalization where cost effective, to procure energy investment and facilitate access to finance for cleaner and climate resilient energy projects and infrastructure. Finally, parties committed themselves to data and energy information exchange and coordination with, between, and among countries and stakeholders to minimize duplication and enable the monitoring and evaluation of energy projects to maximize the impacts of efforts toward fully integrated, low carbon and climate-resilient energy transition plans.

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