Joint Media Release: IRENA and OECS

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in collaboration with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), is hosting a three-day Capacity-Building and Training Workshop on Project Finance and Facilitation in the Caribbean, with particular focus on renewable energy project finance.

The shift to renewable energy is a central pillar of the Caribbean’s response to climate change and critical for the region’s energy security. While renewable energy project development in small island developing states has increased, many technically sound projects falter at the financing stage due to factors rendering a project financially unfeasible.

The workshop, which runs from 22-24 November at the Harbor Club, Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, is expected to enhance the capacities of local actors in different Caribbean countries in structuring financing deals for renewable energy projects. Ultimately, the goal is to increase the number of renewable energy projects financed in the region. It exposes participants to IRENA’s project facilitation tools and the fundamentals of project finance, allowing them to test what they have learnt through case studies and interactive exercises.

IRENA is supporting the workshop under its Climate Investment Platform (CIP), a demand-driven vehicle facilitating the development and scale-up of renewable energy technologies through tailored technical assistance to Member countries. The OECS, for its part, is collaborating with IRENA on the Eastern Caribbean Solar Challenge, an initiative under the Caribbean NDC Finance Initiative, which supports OECS Member States in their efforts to meet climate-change objectives.

Workshop participants include representatives of government ministries, financial institutions and project developers from the OECS Member States of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Belize, the Dominican Republic, Suriname and Guyana.

IRENA, with a membership of 168 countries, is the leading global intergovernmental agency driving the global energy transition and provides state-of-the-art data and analyses on technology, innovation, policy, finance and investments. IRENA drives the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, and energy security, for economic and social resilience and prosperity and a climate-proof future.

OECS is an International Inter-governmental Organisation dedicated to regional integration in the Eastern Caribbean. The body now has eleven members states comprising of States of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe as associate members.

FROM

Crispin d’AuvergneClimate Change & Disaster Risk Management Coordinator, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

Danny MoonieCommunications / Knowledge Management Specialist, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States