The Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Energy which is being held at the CARICOM Secretariat today is an opportunity for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to move forward along the sustainable development path, Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Manorma Soeknandan said.

Delivering opening remarks at the Ministerial Meeting, Ambassador Soeknandan pointed to the critical nature of energy and noted that in spite of the progress the Community had made already, significant additional changes had to be made to urgently meet the demands for modern, secure, reliable, efficient, cost‑effective energy services.

With such services, our countries will be able to meet the basic needs of our growing populations, further sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts, bolster our respective urban economies and unlock economic opportunities in rural and remote areas. Energy is about sustainable livelihoods and job creation alike,” the Deputy Secretary-General said.

Ambassador Soeknandan referred to the Community’s Five-Year Strategic Plan which identified energy as a cross-cutting area for building economic resilience.

Our Heads of Government had already mandated the Commission on the Economy to give priority to Energy on its Agenda for the achievement of growth and development,” the Deputy Secretary-General said.

The one-day Meeting will be followed tomorrow by a Special Meeting of COTED on the Environment and Energy where focus will be placed on matters including the Post-2015 Development Agenda with reference specifically to the climate, water and energy nexus, strategies for increasing climate adaptation capital inflows into sustainable energy development, and climate resilience building into energy planning.

Climate change is being highlighted as the greatest threat to the sustainable development goals of Caribbean SIDS, which include all of our Member States. I am pleased, therefore, to see that there will be efforts to address some of the issues common to the energy and climate sectors in the Fifty‑Fifth Special COTED on Energy and Environment, tomorrow,” Ambassador Soeknandan said.