A little over a week ago, Caribbean and Central American leaders met in Washington to discuss an extensive programme intended to diversify energy sources in the countries of the Caribbean Basin.
Although not specifically aimed at lessening the region’s reliance on Venezuela’s concessional PetroCaribe arrangement, the policy framework agreed may lead inevitably to that outcome. This is because what is proposed is designed to enable, with US, multilateral and private sector support, the eventual delivery of an energy transition away from the present reliance on oil to generate electricity, at a time when the global environment for hydrocarbons is changing and oil prices are low.
At the May 4 summit, the Chair of the meeting, the US Vice President, Joe Biden, conscious of regional political sensibilities, put it rather differently. He said that the US wanted to see the countries of the Caribbean Basin become energy secure, generate opportunity, attract foreign investment and
