IRENA Wants Developing Countries to Move Quickly Towards Renewable Energy

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Francesco La Camera, says transitioning to renewable energy is critical globally, adding that the circumstances of small island developing states (SIDS), such as those in the Caribbean, make it especially urgent.

Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Francesco La Camera , speaking with CMC during the just concluded Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) Global Forum in Barbados. (CMC Photo)“First of all, it is critical for all the world. But here, the conditions are even more critical because the small islands are mainly coastal zones; they are all in the middle of the ocean and here, there is also the confluence of the Gulf, where the water is becoming warmer. So, we have the capacity to enhance the power of every storm that is coming to this area, when we talk about the Caribbean,” La Camera told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

“So, I think it’s crucial to intervene,” he said and urged SIDS to pay attention to the  call made by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley,  for attention to be paid to “both sides”.

“So, the supply part of energy through renewables but also the demand side to allow industrialization and capacities to absorb all the energy that has been produced,” La Camera told CMC.

“And also try to look at markets far from the islands where this could be given more opportunity for trade and revenues for the islands.”

He said this makes the work of the Abu Dhabi-based IRENA very important, noting the SIDS Lighthouse Initiative, a framework for action to support SIDS in their energy transition efforts from fossil fuel dependence to renewables.

The SIDS Lighthouse Initiative covers the Caribbean, the Pacific and the other small islands around the world, and brings together 41 SIDS as well as 53 partners, including developed countries, regional and international organizations, development and multilateral agencies, private companies, research institutes and non-profit organizations, working on knowledge products on how to overcome difficulties.

“We are supporting countries on this new edition of the Nationally Determined Contribution,” La Camera further said, referring to the national climate action plans by each country under the Paris Agreement.

He said IREAN was trying to raise the ambition and make plans that really can be implemented.

“We’re also working on facilitating the funding of projects,” he said, adding that IRENA already has a presence with a few projects in some islands and hoped to have more in the future.

But La Camera acknowledged that finance remains a major barrier to SIDS accelerating their renewable energy adoption, and what are the priorities to overcome them

“As Prime Minister Mottley said, there is difficulty in attracting the attention of the sellers of batteries or other (technology providers),” he said, referring to the Barbados prime minister’s comments at the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) Global Forum that ended here on Thursday.

“So, the opportunity to work together to enhance the capacity to attract investors, to attract sellers, so they work with guarantee is very important,” La Camera told CMC to deal with financial barriers, dimension barriers, infrastructure barriers.

He said that many SIDS have potential in geothermal and hydropower and questioned “how we can put all of these aspects together all this if we don’t have the grids, if we don’t have all this kind of linking and producing the capacity to move the electrons produced from one part to another.

“So, all this is very important. We talk about sharing and overcoming the barriers,” La Camera said, adding that given the vast renewable energy potential in many small island developing states such as solar, wind and ocean energy, IRENA is  helping these countries harness and scale up their renewable energy sources.

“… from what we have been able to do, that was really difficult, and we finally get it. Because the question is the dimension, as we just said. So, making the business case for a geothermal project in a small island is not so easy if you don’t get also some free money, some grants.”

He told CMC that in the case of Dominica’s geothermal energy project, IRENA has been able to work with the World Bank to provide some grants on the storage initiative.

“We talk about Israeli technology. We use Iceland’s knowledge, and we have been able to get the financial close for a geothermal project in Dominica,” La Camera said.

“So, we hope that we can replicate this in other islands. Naturally, again, the most important barriers that we mentioned. If we can overcome that with some grant and perhaps grids it would be possible to do more.”

La Camera said the next milestone for SIDS is the quantity of renewables they produce and progress toward net zero or 100 percent renewables, noting “this may be the way we can increase the wealth and the livelihood of the people and renewables being distributional.

“(It) is the best way to produce more job, three times more than conventional sources of energy. So we have to look as the transformation towards a new energy system as a new opportunity to enhance the quality of life of the people. So, this means what we talk with just transition,” La Camera told CMC.