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Canadian prime minister at the caribbean climate summit

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Canada Commits Millions to Scale Energy Resilience in the Caribbean

The nation announces a multi-million-dollar commitment to address clean energy project preparation and risk barriers, critical to unlock investment and scale equitable access to renewable, affordable energy in the region.

Ottawa, Canada, October 19, 2023 – Yesterday, at the first-ever Canada-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Summit on Canadian soil, Canada announced its multi-million-dollar support for RMI’s clean energy project preparation and development efforts, necessary to scale a resilient, prosperous and inclusive future in the region. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighted how this commitment is tied to national efforts to advance work to fight climate change and grow resilient economies, aligning well with Summit theme “Strategic Partners for a Resilient Future.”

Currently, the majority of Caribbean clean energy projects get stuck in the “project preparation” stage. Over the last 8 years, RMI has partnered with governments, utilities, and developers to deliver multi-tiered support across 20 countries in the Caribbean Islands, centered on energy planning, capacity building, and project preparation and development. Canada’s support is invaluable as it will address identified energy project barriers, allowing the region to deploy renewables at scale.

Specifically, Canada’s funding will function as an anchor investment for RMI’s first Project Preparation and Development Facility (PPDF), one of the regional components of RMI’s Catalytic Climate Capital Initiative (C3).  De-risking and preparing projects includes engineering, financial and implementation advisory services that create certainty around financial and technical feasibility—leading to a robust pipeline of bankable renewable energy projects.

Addressing these project bottlenecks through the PPDF brings with it an abundance of local and regional benefits. When PPDF reaches its target size and unlocks the broader market in the region, the Caribbean will be able to:

  • Reduce environmental footprint: Eliminate 240 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually — an impact equal to removing over 51 million vehicles from the road per year
  • Gain control of electricity prices: Save US$24 billion annually and reduce price volatility
  • Bolster climate resilience: Install stormproof energy systems to provide consistent power for hospitals, telecommunications, and other facilities that are critical during and after extreme storms

Expanding on the Caribbean PPDF, the C3 initiative was recently established to mobilize capital in the Global South, with the goal of supporting the development of a renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy storage project pipeline of 10 GW (about five times the generation capacity of Trinidad and Tobago) within three years. Its initial focus will be on supporting global PPDF efforts in the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

“In order to support our country partners’ needs and ambition, RMI’s presence in the Caribbean has grown from demonstrating first-of-their kind projects to proving the feasibility of renewables at scale. Canada’s support for this approach is game changing,” said Jon Creyts, CEO of RMI. “Through collaborating with Caribbean Island nations on clean energy project preparation and development over the past eight years, RMI has identified and tailored our approach to address barriers hindering scale. With Canada’s funding commitment, we are thrilled to better support regional needs through the Project Preparation and Development Facility (PPDF).”

“Canada and the Caribbean are longstanding partners, sharing vibrant communities and close ties. Welcoming Caribbean partners to Ottawa for the Canada-CARICOM Summit is another chance to keep strengthening this relationship and continue delivering good jobs, a healthy environment, and a safe future for people in Canada and the Caribbean alike,” said The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.

For media inquiries, contact Tierney Sheehan, Communications Lead for RMI’s Islands Energy Program at (+1) 858-735-1169 or tsheehan@rmi.org.
About RMI

RMI, founded in 1982 as Rocky Mountain Institute, is an independent nonprofit that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to align with a 1.5°C future and secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. We work in the world’s most critical geographies and engage businesses, policymakers, communities, and NGOs to identify and scale energy system interventions that will cut greenhouse gas emissions at least 50 percent by 2030. RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Oakland, California; Washington, D.C.; and Beijing. More information on RMI can be found at www.rmi.org or follow us on Twitter or Facebook @RMICaribbean.

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