Workshops hosted by the CARICOM Secretariat, in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), are making an effort to reduce the amount of energy used in the Caribbean cooling sector.
Dual training programs attracted over 50 policymakers and financial and private sector representatives from 15 Caribbean islands for sessions that ranged from policy (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions, or NAMA) to a workshop regarding financing, cost calculation and the economic feasibility of energy-efficiency solutions. Participants were given the opportunity to work with real-life projects and examples from air-conditioning replacements to solar energy and tri-generation.
The region’s dependency on fossil fuel imports coupled with a climate that is hot year-round and particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, makes such training especially important for Caribbean stakeholders. Low efficiency and high leakage rates make the cooling sector responsible for a large portion of greenhouse gas emissions in the Caribbean — a share that is expected to rise by 13% by 2030. Approximately 40% of electricity consumption in the Caribbean region is used in the cooling sector.
To read more, see:
http://www.hydrocarbons21.com/articles/7182/1474970752_caribbean_islands_receive_training_on_climate_friendly_cooling
