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Lauch of CFDA’s CCIP Project Preparation Facility

The Caribbean Climate Investment Program (CCIP), under USAID’s Climate Finance for Development Accelerator (CFDA), is excited to announce the launch of its project preparation facility (PPF)!

CCIP is a four-year activity that aims to unlock private sector investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, adaptation actions, and natural climate solutions across 14 countries in the Caribbean: Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Antigua, the Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. The PPF is one of three integrated mechanisms CCIP is deploying to build the capacity of climate finance seekers and facilitate matchmaking with climate finance providers. The PPF complements CCIP’s grant mechanism and on-demand technical assistance – all of which are offered to entrepreneurs at no cost.

CCIP’s PPF is implemented by a consortium between the Private Finance Advisory Network – Latin America and the Caribbean (PFAN-LAC), the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), and Innovación Social y Ambiental (ISA). The consortium will leverage the global PFAN model to provide business advisory, investment facilitation, and deal structuring services to a minimum of 40 entrepreneurs, assisting at least seven achieve investment readiness. Entrepreneurs who are advancing promising non-utility scale climate projects – especially those with a capital expenditure value of about USD 10M – are encouraged to apply. More information on the application process can be found here.

First-Of-Its-Kind Investor Toolkit for Climate Resilience Solutions

“The Unavoidable Opportunity: Investing in the Growing Market for Climate Resilience Solutions ” is released by the Global Adaptation and Resilience Investment Group (GARI) in partnership with MSCI Sustainability Institute, the Lightsmith Group, the Bezos Earth Fund, and ClimateWorks Foundation.

A group of leading financial and philanthropic organizations today released an investor report and toolkit highlighting climate resilience solutions as a key growth industry of the 21st century. “The Unavoidable Opportunity”  presents a first-of-its-kind, AI-powered framework identifying a universe of over 800 publicly traded companies in the business of resilience along with methods investors can use to find these companies and incorporate climate resilience into investment product design.

The report is authored by GARI, a leader in climate finance, with data and analytics provided in partnership with the MSCI Sustainability Institute and The Lightsmith Group. It was released in conjunction with a new framework for Climate Resilience Investments in Solutions Principles (CRISP) developed by GARI to provide a comprehensive approach to identify relevant companies considering all regions, growth stages, asset classes and sectors.

Download the new research report and the CRISP investment framework

Deputy Premier promotes Bermuda’s ocean leadership at the World Ocean Summit

This week, [Bermuda’s] Deputy Premier and Minister of Home Affairs, the Hon. Walter Roban, participated in the 11th Annual World Ocean Summit and Expo held in Lisbon, Portugal, from March 11th to 13th, 2024.

Throughout the three-day event, Minister Roban spoke on three panels and attended workshops with experts on Marine Protected Areas and managing ocean pollution. He also held numerous conversations and bilateral meetings with policymakers, private sector representatives, and thought leaders, including Sylvia Earle, Fabien Cousteau, and representatives from Greece, the Azores, and Prince Edward Island. Accompanying the Minister was the Brussels Office representative, Ms Aliyyah Ahad.

Minister Roban’s first panel discussed how to drive ocean-centred solutions for small island developing states. He spoke alongside Susanna Debeauville-Scott (Organisation of East Caribbean States), Roxanne Graham (WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute), Tricia Lovell (WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute), and Martin Koehring (Forum for the Future), with opening remarks by Mitsuyuki Unno (The Nippon Foundation).

The second panel debated increasing capacity for restoration and economic development in small island developing states, with co-panellists Ilana Seid (Palau), Masanori Kobayashi (Sasakawa Peace Foundation), and Oliver Morton (The Economist).

The Minister also discussed wave energy in Bermuda alongside Marcelle Askew from Seabased. They shared Bermuda’s experience with its renewable energy regulatory sandbox and how this will lead to the region’s first utility-scale wave power plant.

Also, as part of its video interview series of thought leaders in the sustainable blue economy, Deutsche Bank’s Wealth Management interviewed the Minister.

As the island celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Hamilton Declaration, which created the pioneering Sargasso Sea Commission, Minister Roban invited other small island states, international organisations, and industry leaders to come to Bermuda and see what we are doing in the areas of environmental protection, energy transition, ocean stewardship and sustainability.

Minister Roban explained, “The opportunity for the Large Ocean States is to change the financial architecture and develop blended products and financial approaches that will allow us to take care of ourselves. We don’t want to come begging. That isn’t the modus operandi of any Large Ocean State. We want to be sustainable, prosperous, and able to care for our people and their needs, just like everyone else.”

Please see related press release from Seabased, which is available HERE.

The SIRF Fund Gender-Responsive Blended Financing Window: Synthesis Report

As an island nation, Antigua and Barbuda is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and, despite recent classification as a middle-income country, pockets of poverty heighten this risk for some parts of society. Recognising this challenge, the Sustainable Island Resource Framework (SIRF) Fund was established in 2019 as a financial vehicle to deliver climate and environment-related projects and programmes both domestically and across the Eastern Caribbean. Read More

Global Risks Report 2024

The Global Risks Report explores some of the most severe risks we may face over the next decade, against a backdrop of rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, a warming planet and conflict. As cooperation comes under pressure, weakened economies and societies may only require the smallest shock to edge past the tipping point of resilience. Read More

Halfway to 2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean: progress and recommendations for acceleration

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are halfway through the time frame set for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that underpin the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The progress towards the Goals and targets was drastically hampered by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which has taken a heavy toll across the globe since 2020 and undermined efforts to achieve the Agenda in many regions of the world, including Latin America and the Caribbean, hardest hit by the pandemic. The last biennium has also been marked by global developments that have adversely affected progress towards the SDGs, such as the conflict in Ukraine, trade tensions and geopolitical conflicts, forced migration and a resurgence of inflation. Read More

Dominican Republic: Climate and Development Report

The Dominican Republic is highly vulnerable to climate change, including to extreme natural events and slow-onset changes, such as rising temperatures or forest degradation, which impact important economic sectors and society, especially the poor and vulnerable populations.

Although their contribution to global carbon emissions is relatively low, it continues to increase as the country relies heavily on fossil energy sources such as coal. Further reducing its emissions will generate considerable economic, social and environmental benefits, and will promote sustainability in key sectors such as energy, transport, agriculture and water.

Accelerating climate action will allow the country to reduce poverty and inequality, generate jobs, and contribute to more sustainable development, according to the latest World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Report for the Dominican RepublicRead More

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

CDB Launches The Minimum Regulatory Function Report to Strengthen Environment for Renewable Energy Investment

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has released a publication titled The Minimum Regulatory Function for the Electricity Sector in Caribbean Countries, aimed at assisting its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) strengthen and reform their regulatory frameworks to better facilitate private investments in renewable energy.

The report is the first in a series to be provided under the Bank’s Accelerated Sustainable Energy and Resilience Transition 2030 (ASERT-2030) Framework, a key strategy of the CDB’s Energy Sector Policy and Strategy, aimed at encouraging and supporting BMCs to pursue, expedite and scale-up investments in renewable energy.

Read More

Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator Welcomes the Cayman Islands as its Newest Coalition Territory

Minister of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, Hon. Johany Ebanks and CCSA Director of Public Sector Projects Kiesha Farnum shake hands on signing the official coalition member documents.

The Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA) is proud to welcome the Cayman Islands to its coalition of territories!

Minister of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, Hon. Johany Ebanks and CCSA Director of Public Sector Projects Kiesha Farnum signed the official documents on January 11, 2024.

This is an extra special development prompted by an already successful collaboration. The Cayman Islands is a participant in the CCSA’s Climate-Smart Agriculture pilot project alongside two other islands, Anguilla and Barbados. The project leverages the indoor hydroponics systems called Flex Farms by Wisconsin-based company Fork Farms to empower communities including schools and vulnerable groups to grow their own food under changing weather patterns and increasing water scarcity.

The Cayman Islands have also already taken steps to scale the project exponentially with the purchase of an additional 20 units in the last quarter of 2023. These are currently being distributed to schools across the islands.

CEO of the CCSA Racquel Moses commented, “Our coalition only stands to gain from the incredible enthusiasm, foresight and ambition of the Cayman Islands government that we’ve seen demonstrated in their approach to the climate smart agriculture pilot project. We look forward to their role as we increase sharing and cooperation across our now 29 member-strong coalition in other areas like renewable energy, generating green jobs and land and ocean conservation to accelerate the Caribbean towards being a Climate-Smart Zone.”

Being a part of the CCSA coalition will lend even more support to the Cayman Islands in the development of climate smart initiatives.

This marks an incredible start to 2024 and the CCSA team couldn’t be more pleased.

Cayman Islands we embrace you as our newest coalition territory.

Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2023

Average annual climate finance flows reached almost USD 1.3 trillion in 2021/2022, nearly doubling compared to 2019/2020 levels. This increase was primarily driven by a significant acceleration in mitigation finance (up by USD 439 billion from 2019/2020). The remainder of the growth observed in 2021/2022 (USD 173 billion each year) stems from methodological
improvements and new data sources, which augment the flows tracked in 2019/2020. Without these data improvements, annual finance flows in 2021/2022 would have amounted to just below USD 1.1 trillion.

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