“Sustainable Energy for All” Approach to SIDS: A Case Study from Dominica

Abstract

The Commonwealth of Dominica, amongst the least populated islands in the Caribbean (70,000 pop.), identified the potential to upgrade and expand its hydropower generating capacity from various sites in the country. One site is located in Newtown, outside of Roseau (Dominica’s capital city). It offers the possibility of increasing its share of clean energy in the country’s electricity mix through small-scale hydro developments. Dominica has also considered the development of additional hydropower resources within the Roseau valley, a protected area, though it requires addressing ecosystem-based climate resilience concerns in an integrated manner. This may pose a sustainable energy challenge in the short term; in the long run, Dominica plans to become carbon negative through the addition of geothermal energy to its electricity mix. The Government’s commitment to these plans has been internationally declared, as part of the United Nations Secretary-General “Sustainable Energy for All” (SE4All) initiative. SE4All provides the country with a chance to contribute to its global objectives, by addressing national electricity demand where 70 % of the country’s energy matrix comes from fossil fuels (the remainder coming from hydropower). In response to the request for assistance to reduce its reliance on costly fuel imports, UNDP support to Dominica’s efforts is following an approach targeting the adoption of green, low-emission and climate-resilient development strategies (GLECRDS). Through the GLECRDS approach, UNDP is helping other developing countries –several of them, small island developing states (SIDS)—to combine and sequence different sources of finance to address broader sustainable development concerns.