BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados-based Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) says it is collaborating with the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Regional Organisation for Standards & Quality (CROSQ) to provide regional stakeholders with an opportunity to learn more about the Caricom Regional Energy Efficiency Building Code (CREEBC).

It said that under a project funded by the Technical Assistance Programme for Sustainable Energy in the Caribbean (TAPSEC), it is hosting two webinars to familiarise practitioners with the pertinent aspects of the Code.

The first webinar, held earlier this week, was entitled “What’s In It For Me? A Discussion on the Caricom Regional Energy Efficiency Building Code”. It sought to sensitie the sectors, examine the importance of energy efficiency codes in a Caribbean context, and also answer burning questions that practitioners might have about the requirements of the code.

Addressing the event, CCREEE’s sustainable energy expert Cornelia Schenk said, “Buildings are a key driver for energy demands and emissions, due to rising temperatures globally.”

“What we fail to do now will be locked in for the next decade as buildings are long-term structures,” she said, a position supported by the chairman of the CROSQ Regional Project Team for the development of the CREEBC, Churchill Norbert.

He said that the Caribbean needs to reverse current trends and decarbonise at a rate of three per cent annually, noting that, “In 2020, we are not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030”.

Norbert said the CREEBC provides the region with hope, saying “it is the first of its kind for the region; it is up to date and speaks to minimum requirements for achieving energy efficient buildings”.

Civil engineer Amoy Theobalds-Prospere spoke of several Caribbean structures which have been built to Leadership in Energy Efficiency Design (LEED) standards, some attaining platinum certification. She argue that it is therefore possible for the region to build efficiently, reducing fuel supply demands and imports.