Dear Editor,
I read the President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) comments which were published in the media, for e.g., in the Kaieteur News on October 22, 2021, and titled ‘Region’s future hinges on sustainable energy transition – CDB Pres. tells Member States’. I would propose a ‘Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname Regional Energy Partnership’ (GTSREP) which could also form a part of the wider regional sustainable energy strategy and programme. Firstly, partnerships add value, as such, the three countries should clearly establish what added value each bring to the energy partnership. Secondly, these countries should determine what are the common principles and values around which the energy partnership will be built, managed, and sustained; and thirdly, what are the core areas of focus, in line with their development objectives, as well as with the regional growth and development objectives.
I propose some core focus areas for consideration for such a partnership – geopolitics; technological changes; social changes; crisis (oil spills, natural disasters, internal conflicts, etc.); and market changes/influences – global energy development patterns (in developed and developing countries), current and projected regional and global energy consumption patterns, etc. Globally, the current energy system remains dependent on oil, coal, and natural gas, providing just over 80 percent of the world’s energy needs. In recent years oil has overtaken coal as the largest single source. However, renewables are rapidly becoming an alternative, with some countries currently relying on solar, wind, bioenergy, and hydro to generate almost 25 percent of electricity. Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname can take the lead to articulate how wider regional developmental goals and commitments linked to energy, can be achieved. Some of the baseline consideration of the broader new regional sustainable energy strategy and the ‘Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname Regional Energy Partner-ship’ should be the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those on energy services.
A key focus of the regional partnership should be education and health care, as well as enhancing coordination in climate adaptation. On the market side, it is important to note that the primary driver for energy demand is the change in either gross domestic product (GDP) or GDP per capita, a main consideration for the short, medium, and long-term energy investments. A reality is that developing markets in developing countries are becoming attractive with fast growth, rising incomes, and booming populations. Another key consideration for the regional energy partnership would be consensus on projections shaping the future of energy in the region. A key question is what will regional energy consumption be like? Will the region’s growth trajectory reflect a shift towards manufacturing where the demand for energy could be higher than in a more services-oriented economy? Other areas for the partnership will include, what will be the nature of the competition in the regional energy sector? How will these three countries compete for markets and technologies? What is the new regional business model for sustainable energy based on?
On the geopolitical side, what is becoming more obvious, is new relationships with regional governments and oil companies with the backing of their respective home countries; and new commercial ties between companies and governments which is also influencing non-energy geopolitical relations in the region. Crisis is another factor for consideration by the proposed regional energy partnership. The energy sector is often shaped by hard-to-predict accidents, incidents, or conflicts that change the ways countries produce, trade, and consume energy. Big-power geopolitics is already a feature in these three countries, more recently in Guyana and Suriname: as well as increasing internal challenges, particularly in Guyana. There is a role for proper management of the regional energy landscape which could assist governments as they manage complex internal challenges and opposition which could strain individual government capacity, as in the case of Guyana. In addition to adequately protecting communities and assets the regional energy landscape will continue to be driven by complex economic, technological, political, and geopolitical factors. The partnership will ensure resilience as a key component of a regional sustainable energy strategy. The partnership can also assist in overcoming hurdles, for example that gas faces with objections by the environmental community that sees gas development as a distraction for lower-carbon sources of power generation, such as wind and solar.
Sincerely,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas
