(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) last month formalized the Technical Cooperation Agreement that made available US$400 000 in grant funding to pave the way for the preparation of the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Roadmap and Strategy (C-SERMS).

The Technical Cooperation Agreement, signed on 25 October by His Excellency Sir Edwin Carrington, CARICOM Secretary-General, and Marco Nicola, Representative of IADB, provides for the execution of project activities over a 30-month period.

The money will be used to finance a consultancy to assist in developing the C-SERMS. The C-SERMS will have the following objectives and characteristics:

• define a strategic and targeted regional approach to increasing the contribution of renewable energy, energy efficiency and bio-energy in the energy mix;
• set achievable short, medium and long-term targets (2015, 2020, 2025) and outline steps for specific actions at country and regional levels;
• provide the basis for firm commitments by Governments within CARICOM, and development partners in achieving these objectives;
• allow for coordination, harmonization and optimization of efforts in sustainable energy development among energy sector stakeholders and identify potential synergies;
• provide a reference point or baseline for measuring progress in sustainable energy development within CARICOM;
• be a dynamic and living document to be developed in phases and refined and updated over time. The first phase C-SERMS will be developed based on existing resource assessment and information including sector policy, legislation and regulations and refined periodically based on the results of new resources assessment, studies and initiatives.

Additional activities to be financed from the IADB grant resources include the design and operation of a Sustainable Energy Platform and the appointment of a Project Manager to support the CARICOM Energy Programme. The money will also be used to provide training and build capacity for research and development in sustainable energy, as well as to design and prepare research and innovation projects.

The broad-based Sustainable Energy Platform will comprise stakeholders across the CARICOM Member States drawn from Governments/public sector, private sector, non-Governmental Organizations and academia. The Platform will primarily be responsible for revising the regional targets and strategies outlined in the C-SERMS for sustainable energy based on the changing landscape. In addition, the Platform will provide technical assistance to Governments within CARICOM in screening requests for sustainable energy projects, mobilizing resources from bilateral and multilateral partners to finance pipeline projects and collaborating with the private sector to implement one or more sustainable energy demonstration projects.

The development and implementation of the C-SERMS was agreed to at the 20th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Heads of Government of CARICOM held in Belize City, 11-13 March 2009, as a key climate change mitigation strategy.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org