Trinidad and Tobago Energy Minister Stuart Young earlier this month used his address to the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference in Port of Spain to assert that securing funding for the smaller countries in the Caribbean to pursue renewable energy undertakings is a consideration that ought to be brought further to the forefront of the wider regional agenda. The smaller countries in the region, particularly, need more funding for renewable energy Young told the gathering at Port of Spain’s Hyatt Regency Hotel on Sunday June 4.
Tagging his pronouncement to an appeal to multilateral agencies to “find ways” to support investments in renewable energy undertakings in the region, Young declared that in his view, the only way renewables can become bankable in some of these jurisdictions is when there is an element of grant funding attached to their financing. ”So, if you’re interested in reducing emissions globally, you have to contribute because smaller countries are not going to be able to afford it,” the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Minister is quoted as saying. A report in the June 5 Trinidad Express quotes Young as saying that even as there are manifestations of a more aggressive lobby for clean energy, Trinidad and Tobago’s main focus continues to be on energy security.