Jamaica’s CDM Experience and NAMA Prospects Gerald Lindo Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change (MWLECC) Jamaica

The Country Context: Small, Vulnerable, Lots of Potential Small island state – High vulnerability to climate change Energy import dependent – 91% of energy overall and 94% of electricity fossil fuel based (HFO, Diesel) – Mitigation potential low, but mitigation options have excellent economics Heavily indebted, weak growth

Bullish on CDM… The strong impression among policy makers that there were good financing opportunities in “carbon credits” Rush of project submissions between Policies were built with CDM opportunities in mind – Aug National Carbon Emissions Trading Policy Halt to new project registration – Sep Policy Task Force Ministry of Energy and Mining – Draft Carbon Trading Policy prepared June 2009 – Energy and sub-policies integrated CC considerations Gov’t hired a CDM consultant who was made available to the private sector

… until the carbon market bust! PoA for utility company designed but abandoned Over 20 project submissions led to only 2 projects following through – both by Gov’t entity Locked out of ETS, leading to uncertainty Draft Carbon Trading Policy in limbo

Wigton Wind Farm Two projects from 2 expansion phases – Ref: 0239, 5522 – Total reductions of and T CO2e / year ER purchase agreement with CAF ended 2012 Challenge: making verification of latest CERs worth the transaction costs – Possibilities: Gold Standard; working through Bunge Emissions Holdings

The lessons: better C prices, capacity, lower transaction costs desired Emission reductions projects still have good returns, but benefits of CDM usually marginal to bottom line Transaction costs high – Exacerbated by lack of local capacity (all steps of project cycle require importation of expertise) Lack of investor confidence in CDM still needs to be overcome Policy missteps? Good news: the fundamental economics and benefits of energy projects that reduce emissions have not changed

1st NAMA(s) will be RE focused Draft NAMA prepared in collaboration with OLADE: “Jamaica Renewable Energy Support Programme” Pre-existing policy target: 20% of energy from RE by 2030 Analysis of vision, policies, action plans Barrier analysis Institutional assessment EMISSION REDUCTION ANALYSIS MRV Finalization by end of Q4, 2014

NAMAs = mitigation + development + adaptation = Resilience Jamaica has a unique opportunity, inasmuch as ANY energy sector reform will likely reduce energy costs while giving SD benefits! – Lower costs – Increased competitiveness … which equals RESILIENCE! CDM’s structure and methods brings a discipline and robustness to projects and programmes, which can help us get the help we need

How about a RAMA? To overcome capacity and scale issues, Jamaica is contemplating uniting with regional partners to create Regionally Appropriate Mitigation Actions – Sharing expertise – Larger programmes more attractive to investors, and have lower transaction costs (same rationale for PoAs)

Thank you! @geraldlindo