Caribbean remains committed to clean energy

ENERGY Chamber of TT chairperson Mala Baliraj says the Caribbean has a strong interest in developing clean energies despite major shifts in the global landscape by larger countries like the United States in their focus on sustainable energy.

Baliraj was delivering opening remarks on behalf of the Energy Chamber's board at its Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference 2025 at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre in Port of Spain on June 2.

She said countries like Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, Dominica, Jamaica and TT were also aggressively pursuing renewable energy initiatives.

Baliraj said Barbados set ambitious targets for renewables outlined in the Barbados National Energy Policy document to achieve the 100 per cent renewable energy and carbon-neutral island-state transformational goals by 2030. She said Guyana was maintaining its seven central themes in its Green State Development Strategy, even as it ramps up oil production.

Grenada’s National Sustainable Development Plan is the anchor for their development agenda and priorities.

Baliraj said Dominica was taking a lead in geothermal energy while Jamaica was a forerunner with wind, solar and the shift to natural gas for power generation.

She said TT had its first grid-scale solar project which was the biggest in the region and was due to come online later this year.

That, she said, is in addition to significant ongoing efforts for the introduction of low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture, low-carbon marine fuels and methane reduction activities.

Despite those efforts, she said there were shortcomings which needed to be addressed.

"While there is clearly progress across the region and tremendous opportunities exist, the reality is that actual implementation lags behind ambition. Given the global shifts already identified, it is important that we take a hard and honest look at where we are and what we need to do to close that gap."

Baliraj also said discussions on sustainable energy in the Caribbean tended to focus mainly on electricity and investments in renewable energy which, while critical, also needed to focus on the "hard to abate sectors."

Those are sectors which are considered challenging to decarbonise given the complexity and reliance on fossil fuels such as the transportation industry.

Baliraj hoped that meaningful progress and discussions could be had among the wide number of industry leaders and experts present over the three-day conference which runs from June 2 to 4.