1 June Haus der Geschichte, Saal 18:30 h - 20:00 h

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat and the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme / Secretaria de Estado de Industria y Comercio (SEIC), Departamento Energ�a no Convencional Comisi�n Nacional de Energ�a (Cerencia de Energ�as Alternas CNE): Issues and Opportunities for Renewable Energy in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands / Dominican Republic - Investment Opportunities in the Heart of the Carribean A power point presentation highlighting the issues and opportunities faced by small island states in the Caribbean and Pacific in their renewable energy developments. The Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) The Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Project (CREDP) is being executed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana. CARICOM is an inter-government agency serving the trade and development goals of 15 member states. States participating in CREDP are the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. CREDP is financed in part by a grant from the Global Environment Facility, (GEF) through the implementing agency the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP.) The Project is co-financed by the German Aid Agency, GTZ, and UNDP TRAC funds. The overall objective of the CREDP is: �To remove barriers to the increased use of renewable energies (RE) and reduce implementation costs thus reducing the Caribbean region�s dependence on fossil fuels and contributing to the reduction of green house gas emissions.� The sub-objectives are: 1. Supporting the implementation of policies, legislation and regulations that create an enabling environment for RE development; 2. Demonstrating innovative financing mechanisms for RE products and projects; 3. Building the capacity of selected players in the RE field; 4. Putting in place an improved regional RE information network. The achievements of CREDP to date are: 1. The design of the Caribbean Renewable Energy Facility, CREF. This is a long-term debt facility for on-balance sheet (i.e. corporate finance), as well as off-balance sheet (i.e. limited recourse) project finance. 2. The initial design of a Commercial Loan Guarantee Mechanism. This facility will provide security to commercial banks as they lend to small distributed projects such as solar water heaters and photovoltaics, as well as larger grid connected projects. The security will take the form of partial (50-80%) credit guarantees and partial sovereign risk guarantees. The mechanisms will also leverage existing guarantee products. For example, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through its Development Credit Agency (DCA) will provide a 50% partial loan guarantee to commercial banks in the region that lend to solar water heating projects in the hotel sector; 3. The design of the Caribbean Technical Assistance Facility, CRETAF. This facility will fund feasibility studies, resources assessments, and grid stability studies in order to prepare projects for deal structuring and bank financing; 4. The development of a project pipeline of twenty-six (26) RE investment projects. Technologies include wind farms, solar water heaters, small hydro, biomass (e.g. sugar cane bagasse), land fills, and geothermal. A projected total investment of US$414 million would result in the avoidance of more than 388,159 tons/annum CO2, including more than117,230 tons/annum of CO2 for wind farms and 75,600 tons/annum for solar water heaters; 5. Development of selection criteria to screen projects entering the CREDP project pipeline for ultimate referral to CRETAF and CREF and/or bank financing; 6. Demonstration of Government commitment by obtaining Government Letters of Support that identified specific government policies, incentives and support mechanisms for RE projects. The Pacific Islands Renewable Energy Programme (PIREP) The PIREP is being executed by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (see http://www.sprep.org.ws) in Apia, Samoa. Participating in the PIREP are 15 Pacific Islands Countries [PICs] which are the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Island, Tonga, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The PIREP is financed mostly by a grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the implementing agency, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Project is jointly financed with TRAC funds from the UNDP. The development goal of the current phase of the PIREP is the preparation of a regional approach to removing barriers to the development and commercialization of RE systems in the PICs that influences country efforts to reduce the long-term growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel uses, especially diesel. The purpose of the project is the �acceleration of the adoption and commercialization of feasible and applicable renewable energy technologies (RETs).� The current phase of the PIREP is focused on collecting the baseline data and information that will be used to develop a full GEF project proposal for the removal of the identified barriers. The proposal will include, but not restricted, to the following activities: 1. Supporting the implementation of policies, legislation and regulations that create an enabling environment for RE development; 2. Demonstrating innovative financing mechanisms for RE products and projects; 3. Building the capacity of selected players in the RE field; 4. Putting in place an improved RE energy information network. The expected achievements of the current phase of the PIREP are: 1. 15 National renewable energy sector assessment reports 2. 1 regional synthesis of the national assessment reports 3. A report on possible financing mechanisms for funding RE technologies in the PICs 4. A report of possible projects which would showcase the business angle of RE delivery 7. A report on possible technology support programme for RE technologies 8. A regional RE data base and website for the PICs 9. A comprehensive full GEF proposal for the removal of the barriers identified at both the national and regional level.

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