On 7th March 2022, Energy Chamber CEO, Dax Driver, presented to governmental officials from across the Americas on what the private-sector would like to see included in the upcoming Summit of the Americas, scheduled for June 2022 in Los Angeles, USA.  Speaking on behalf of the Americas Business Dialogue working group on energy, Driver outlined the major policy areas that the group has recommended hemispheric leaders consider in their deliberations.

The Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) meeting, chaired by Mr. Kevin O’Reilly, National Summit Coordinator for the United States, heard from a range of representatives from civil society, youth representatives and the private sector.  

Dax Driver outlined five key policy areas that the private-sector ABD energy working group would like to see regional governments address urgently, in the context of climate change, net zero ambitions and the energy transition.   These policy areas included the need for governments to set clear roadmaps and long-term policy frameworks, which are crucial to allow private-sector capital to flow into the lower carbon energy sources, including both renewable energy and natural gas,

The energy working group has also been encouraging the integration of energy markets to allow easier cross border trade in electricity and in other sources of energy, including natural gas and green or blue hydrogen.  Driver pointed out that while the Americas has abundant energy sources, these are not evenly distributed and that there are both energy exporting and energy importing countries in the region.  Traditionally the most carbon intense fossil fuels, coal, petroleum products and crude oil, have been widely traded, but what is needed now is policies to create the infrastructure for the trade in electricity from renewable sources and the trade in natural gas via pipelines or LNG.

Governments were also urged to develop the policies and regulatory regimes that encourage the development and adaptation of new technologies.  Energy storage technologies, including batteries and hydrogen, will be especially important for the decarbonisation drive.

There also needs to be significant investment in flexible and resilient electricity grids that can incorporate intermittent sources of renewable energy. There has been a huge decrease in the cost of most renewable energy production sources over recent years, but these can only translate into competitive prices for consumers if the delivery mechanisms can adapt to the intermittency of supply of most renewables. 

The final area covered by the ABD energy working group is the need for a focus on the production of inputs to renewable and low carbon energy systems in the Americas to overcome global supply chain disruptions.  This issue was also discussed in detail at the recent side event organised by the ADB at the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas Ministerial meeting in Panama.  Current global geopolitical tensions further underline the importance of this issue.

The Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago will continue to work closely with the ABD energy working group and will also coordinate with other Chambers in the Caribbean through the Caribbean Chambers Network to ensure that Caribbean private-sector perspectives get considered in the Summit process.