December 15th, 2020–Several Caribbean Community Member States showcased their ambitions to further address climate change at a CARICOM Moment of Ambition event held on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement, on Friday 11 December 2020.
The event was convened to demonstrate continued Small Island Developing States (SIDS) leadership and ambition and to underscore the need for immediate climate action internationally.
Barbados will strive to reduce its Greenhouse Gas Emissions, across its entire economy to zero, by 2030 and intends to become fossil fuel free over the next 10 years.
The plan is to recover energy from waste streams and to use biomass to provide some firm generation capacity. These sources of renewable energy, combined with energy storage, will provide approximately 1,400 gigawatt hours of energy annually to power homes and cars.
The vision is that by 2030, the average Barbadian household will have solar PV panels on their roofs and an electric vehicle in their garage as the country moves to a more distributed and more resilient, model of both energy generation and storage.
Grenada also submitted its Second Nationally Determined Contribution to the UNFCCC on November 30, 2020. That second NDC commits Grenada to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 2010 levels by 2030 by taking priority action in the energy, domestic transport, forestry, waste, and cooling sectors
This NDC is much more inclusive than the first one and includes consideration of youth, children, women and other vulnerable groups, as well as loss and damage. The integration of loss and damage is very important to Grenada as it reflects the significant recognition that adaptation and mitigation actions are not enough to address climate change
Grenada indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has provided the region and international community at large with a golden opportunity to reset and refocus development programming and to integrate COVID-19 recovery packages and eco-system-based approaches with the implementation of new and updated NDCs.
Jamaica submitted its revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) on June 30 2020 making it one of only 18 other countries in the world to have done so to date. Grenada and Suriname are the other two CARICOM nations included in that number
Jamaica’s revised NDC is considerably more ambitious than its first, comprising both a broadening of sectoral scope and the delivery of deeper emissions cuts. For the first time, the NDC includes the land-use change and energy sectors as they move towards an economy-wide target.
Also, under this NDC, Jamaica, despite being a developing country and a Small Island Developing State, will move closer to decoupling economic growth from its emissions profile.
The decision to include the change of land-use, reflects the importance of the Forestry Sector to Jamaica, which accounts for more than half of the island’s total land use, and the important commitments that the country has made to preserve and enhance these stocks.
The country has identified opportunities to deepen the emission reductions it delivers in the energy sector. These opportunities are part of an increasingly comprehensive approach to decarbonizing the sector, which covers both the electricity generation and energy use sub-sectors.
