Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, the Honorable Gaston Browne, is among Caribbean leaders who have accepted an invitation from United States Vice President Joe Biden to participate in a regional summit on Energy Security being held in Washington DC on Monday 24th January 2015. Prime Minister Browne is accompanied by the Honorable Asot Michael, Minister of Tourism, Economic Development, Investment and Energy and by Ambassador Brian Challenger, Adviser to the Minister of Energy.
The Washington Summit is a follow up to a similar meeting held in 2013 in Trinidad and is aimed at providing a forum for advancing hemispheric mechanisms in promoting clean energy development in the region at a time of volatility in regional and international energy markets. The meeting also comes against a background of increasing focus on development of the regions renewable energy supplies and attention on implementing policies and measures for meeting international climate change emission targets.
The meeting is expected to issue a broad statement of principles intended to promote a cleaner and more sustainable energy
future for the Caribbean. Principal among the concerns of Antigua and Barbuda and other Caribbean countries will be advancing international cooperation to facilitate private and public sector investment in the energy sector in such areas as upgrading of electricity grids, energy efficiency, and wind and solar energy development.
Caribbean leaders are also scheduled to follow up with the US Vice President and US administration officials on a number of other areas of regional concern relating to the region’s economic competitiveness, human resource development, and citizen security.
The Washington summit is expected to be attended by a number of other bilateral and multilateral development partners including the Caribbean Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Union, and the OAS as well as the OECS and Caricom secretariats.
