December 4, 2024, Bridgetown - Barbados is moving forward with its efforts to achieve resilient, affordable, and low-carbon electricity infrastructure with the Sustainable Management and Resilient Thinking for our Energy Revolution (SMARTER) Project. On Wednesday, December 4, 2024, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Energy and Business Development signed the agreement for US$1.6 million in grant funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which will be administered by UNDP.

The SMARTER initiative aligns with Barbados' National Energy Policy (BNEP) 2019-2030, aiming for 100% renewable energy by 2030.  It will focus on strengthening the Government’s capacity to lead this energy transition, enabling the use of sustainable biomass resources for generating energy, and developing a pipeline of bioenergy projects, among other initiatives. Through these efforts, SMARTER is expected to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increase the country’s renewable energy capacity. 

Minister of Energy and Business Development, Senator the Hon. Lisa Cummins, underscored the importance of the SMARTER project in supporting Barbados’ aim to diversify its energy mix. She said, “It is about looking to see how we can bring new forms of technology into the country; how we are able to ensure that those new forms of technology are cost-efficient; and that they are easily accessible for all Barbadians and then lead to the ultimate goal of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.”

She emphasized the importance of coherence across the various energy projects happening in the country within the public and private sectors, noting that SMARTER aims to gather insights from each of those projects to map the potential for a bioenergy economy in Barbados and to create opportunities for a just energy transition, which she explained entails, “the creation of new jobs, training in new areas of skills, new capacity building and new opportunities – not just for Barbados, but for export.”