PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The biggest energy challenge in the Caribbean is over-dependence on imported petroleum and petroleum products. In remarks at the opening ceremony of a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (Coted) at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Caricom’s Office-in-Charge, Trade and Economic Integration, Desiree Field-Ridley said the region’s annual fuel import bill is about US$9 billion a year “with the tendency to be rising”. “This continues to have a deleterious effect on the economic and social development of the net energy importing countries of Caricom,” she said. “It is also the reason why the region continues to search for ways to mitigate the impact of the high price of oil, especially with respect to food and other commodities. Field-Ridley said achieving energy security through the diversification of energy supplies is a major focus of the Revised Draft Regional Energy Policy. In that regard, she noted, it was only rational that countries in the region without proven hydrocarbon resources aggressively pursue harnessing of abundant renewable energy.