Devon Gardner

Devon Gardner is the Programme Manager for Energy and Head of the Energy Unit at the CARICOM Secretariat. Since he joined the CARICOM Energy Unit he drives the CCREEE process forward.

He brings to this role, extensive experience in resource assessment; physical modeling; engineering design; policy development; and capacity building strategies for low carbon projects and has an extensive projects portfolio, derived through work with many governments, organizations and institutions throughout the Caribbean and Pacific Small Island Developing States.

In this role, Devon has oversight of the CARICOM Energy Programme (CEP), which is tasked with increasing regional energy security and advancing the transformation of the Region’s energy sector towards a more sustainable energy path (through the implementation of a regional energy policy and a regional sustainable energy strategy). The Five Year CARICOM Strategic Plan [2015-2019], approved by the CARICOM Heads of Government in June 2014, identifies a critical catalytic role for energy in promoting regional economic integration, sustainable economic growth and development.

Devon is renowned for his connection approach to problem solving and, his knowledge of island energy systems and the regional energy sector aside, is a trained climate change specialist who integrates climate mitigation and adaptation strategies into sustainable energy – renewable energy and energy efficiency – deployment. Previous to his appointment at the Secretariat, Dr. Gardner was a Technical Adviser to the GEF-UNEP Energy for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project and the SIDS DOCK Island Energy Initiative, which are both within the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC).

He also served as an Adjunct Professor in the Sustainable Energy Management Programme at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago; Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the College of The Bahamas and Northern Caribbean University (Jamaica); Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow in Chemical Physics at the University of Iceland and the University of Leiden in The Netherlands respectively; and Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus). He has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles and studies and received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry with specialization in numerical analysis from the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus) in 2001.