Reducing Belize’s Reliance on Fossil Fuel

Belize is making strides to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. This week, the CARICOM Development Fund and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center signed a Memorandum of Agreement to support Belize’s efforts in cutting down fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. The Ministry of Economic Development is also backing this initiative. News Five’s Britney Gordon has more details on this exciting development.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

The Caribbean region is one of the most vulnerable areas to the impacts of climate change. The Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC) is the only CARICOM institution specifically designed to tackle these effects. Despite its crucial role, the CCCCC was the first non-subvention entity in the community, meaning it doesn’t receive funding from CARICOM. This makes the collaboration between the CCCCC and the Caribbean Development Fund (CDF) essential in the fight against climate change. Together, they are working to protect our region and build a more sustainable future.

 

Dr. Colin Young, Executive Director, CCCCC

“ The Five C’s as an institution, the successes we’ve had really is because of our ability to forge these strategic partnerships with member states and governments with international partners and governments and regional institutions, and you see CDF here. Again, these are all mandated institutions of CARICOM. They have different roles. They have different responsibilities, and the Five Cs is here from a climate change space to help them to execute their mandate, but to incorporate the climate change.”

 

This week, the CCCCC, the Caribbean Development Fund, and Belize’s Ministry of Economic Development teamed up to sign a Memorandum of Agreement. This partnership aims to boost the Credit Risk Abatement Facility project, which is all about strengthening and securing small and medium-sized businesses in the renewable energy and climate sectors. Rodinald Soomer, the CEO of the Caribbean Development Fund, shared some fascinating insights into how this agreement came to be.

 

Rodinald Soomer, C.E.O., Caribbean Development Fund

“CDF has had this MOU with the Five C’s for quite a while now. There was a very short, intervention that we did together, which actually resulted in us being able to present a very rigorous proposal to the board of directors. For the co financing of the project in Barbados, and that for us was a good example of what we could have achieved together working as regional institutions. And of course, you were aware of our launch of the CRAF and the promise that it held for assisting with the energy transition in the region, particularly in the private sector. And so you obviously saw the importance of supporting us in trying to rule out this facility throughout the region, which is what I was signing today will allow us to do.”

 

The CRAF project is all about cutting down on our dependence on fossil fuels, slashing greenhouse gas emissions, and boosting the country’s climate resilience. The Caribbean Development Fund (CDF) is on a mission to tackle social and economic inequalities and foster unity and growth across CARICOM, especially in the sectors that need it the most.

 

Rodinald Soomer

“What this means in a practical sense is that we have to treat with development challenges in the region that are multidimensional and cross cutting, linked to the smallness of our economies, the openness and the low levels of diversification.  And we have to do this with severe resource constraints and these resources have to be assigned to dealing with competing development priorities and in particular, climate change related in the food, water and energy sectors.”

 

Soomer and Young highlight that this collaboration is a shining example for other regional organizations. It shows how partnerships can effectively bring people together and build stronger social and economic bonds.

 

Dr. Colin Young

“ We have over a hundred million projects in Barbados that we are managing from the Green Climate Fund, all in the water sector. And I’m very pleased to say that CDF had a role to play in this project because the Five C’s would’ve worked with the CDF to essentially broker an agreement between the government of Barbados and CDF to provide twelve million in loan that serve as a co-finance for this project to do nine kilometer of pipeline project. We’ve already worked together to mobilize climate finance for our countries.  And currently, our portfolio is actually one hundred sixty million is what we are currently managing on behalf of our member states in twelve countries”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.