Low-Carbon Development Strategies for the Caribbean
 | |
| Xing Fu-Bertaux conducts research on solar energy in Santo Domingo. Photo credit: Julian Despradel | |
Worldwatch's Energy Roadmaps for the Caribbean project aims to develop and communicate low-carbon development strategies for Caribbean small-island states. Our current focus is on the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica, but we will seek to expand our work to other islands. By collaborating with local stakeholders in each country, Worldwatch will produce concrete low-carbon energy roadmaps that empower these countries to reduce their consumption of, and dependence on, fossil fuel imports while at the same time increasing their energy security; reducing energy costs, local pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions; and creating new business opportunities as well as high-quality jobs.
The nations of the Greater Antilles (the Dominican Republic and Haiti on the island of Hispaniola as well as the Republic of Jamaica) are among the Caribbean’s highest consumers of energy. With no fossil energy resources of their own, these countries are highly dependent on fuel imports to supply their energy needs. This dependence has resulted in enormous economic and environmental costs. Worldwatch’s low-carbon roadmaps show ambitious, but realistic and practicable avenues toward an energy future that is more sustainable from any perspective – socio-economic, environmental, or security. The roadmaps will serve as important strategic blueprints and as reference points for the necessary partnerships of governments with technical experts, utilities, business leaders, investors, and local communities.
Worldwatch’s Caribbean program currently includes the following projects:
- “Assessing and Harnessing Renewable Resources: Empowering Decision Makers in the Dominican Republic”: Analyzes the wind and solar potentials of particular zones around the DR. Supported by the Alianza en Energía y Ambiente con Centroamérica (Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America, EEP).
- “Designing and Communicating Low-Carbon Energy Roadmaps for Small Island States of the Caribbean”: Examines the potentials of different energy solutions including solar, wind, and biomass, as well as energy efficiency and storage opportunities for the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. Funded by International Climate Initiative (ICI) of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
| About Sustainable Energy Roadmaps | ||
|---|---|---|
Worldwatch employs a multi-staged approach for the creation of its roadmaps. First, we examine each country’s potential for renewable energy production, such as solar, wind, small hydropower, and biomass. We also analyze the energy infrastructure in order to explore the potential for, and technical hurdles to, increased efficiency and storage capacities. We then examine the current socio-economic and policy environments to identify given barriers to low-carbon development, and make suggestions how these can be overcome. Finally, we look at financial resources that are available both domestically as well as from multilateral institutions. Based on the insights gained on all these fronts, the roadmaps, as the project’s end product, will include specific recommendations on how to transition the energy system of a given country over the course of a few decades. |
| Experts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Climate & Energy Director |  | Program Manager | |
 | Research Associate |  | Research Associate | |
 | Research Associate | |||
| Recent Blogs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partners | |
|---|---|
| |
|
