St. Lucia’s energy policy roadmap discussed at UN High-Level Political Forum

St. Lucia’s policy roadmap and renewable energy projects were highlighted as an example of best practices in the ‘Achieving SDG 7 in Small Island Developing States’ Policy Brief during the United National High-Level Political Forum.

The island’s National Energy Transition Strategy was developed by the Government of Saint Lucia, the electric utility Saint Lucia Electricity Services Limited, in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Clinton Foundation.

Dr. Gale Rigobert, Minister for education, gender, innovation and sustainable development of Saint Lucia, called the collaboration with the state’s electric utility “key to Saint Lucia’s success”.

Gregory Milne, Chief impact and foreign policy officer at the Clinton Foundation noted the importance of discussing best practices and highlighting the successes of projects like the ones in Saint Lucia, as they can serve “both as scalable models for other island nations, and as a reminder of the energy transition that the rest of the world should be striving for”.

The country’s National Energy Transition Strategy outlined how to meet Saint Lucia’s electricity needs through a transition to renewables while reducing costs, increasing energy independence for the country and improving grid reliability and stability. This policy roadmap has resulted in several renewable energy projects in different planning and construction phases, including a 3MW solar PV plant, a further 10MW solar PV project and a 12MW wind project.

“Saint Lucia is signaling that island nations, although they are on the front lines of climate change, are not victims of climate change”, said Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute. “Rather, they are demonstrating that they are the ones bold enough to show the world the solutions to the climate challenge, in the process creating a replicable and scalable blueprint for the global energy transition,”

The next steps for Saint Lucia will include an increase of electric vehicles in the market, a utility-scale solar and battery project and further renewable energy projects.

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