Saint Elizabeth

Portland

Saint James

Kingston

Manchester

Saint Mary

Hanover

Saint Andrew

Clarendon

Saint Ann

Westmoreland

Saint Thomas

Saint Catherine

Trelawny

Jamaica

This project introduces an innovative utility-led approach to scaling distributed clean energy in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), supporting GCF’s goal of expanding access to sustainable, affordable, and resilient renewable energy, particularly in underserved regions. 

 The Caribbean region faces intensifying climate impacts—including storms, floods, and rising temperatures—and remains reliant on fossil fuel-based electricity, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Participating countries risk missing critical opportunities to decarbonise their energy sectors and adapt their systems to growing climate pressures without targeted investment. 

The Integrated Utility Services (IUS) project aims to accelerate the adoption of distributed renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other clean energy technologies. It combines customer education, installation support, and utility bill repayment to reduce upfront cost barriers. It also creates the conditions to scale this approach by strengthening institutional and regulatory frameworks and building the technical capacity of utilities. 

The project introduces an innovative utility-led approach to scaling clean energy that can be replicated across SIDS. By linking demand-side solutions with regulatory measures and innovative financing mechanisms, this project supports the development of more resilient and efficient energy systems.

Community-based and civil society organizations are technically and financially supported to design and deliver locally led initiatives that address complex socio-ecological challenges to foster resilience, enhance livelihoods and deliver global environmental benefits.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean are highly vulnerable to climate change, which affects crucial economic sectors such as tourism, agriculture, and fishing. Rising sea levels and changing weather patterns threaten natural habitats and increase the severity of natural disasters. Despite minimal contributions to global emissions, SIDS in the Caribbean face significant economic risks, with projected annual losses of USD 22 billion by 2050, making emissions reduction essential.

The Caribbean Net-Zero and Resilient Private Sector programme supports climate resilient investments in the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Focusing on agriculture, sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy, transport, and the blue economy, the programme aims to overcome investment barriers by providing advisory services and blended finance solutions. It also emphasises gender mainstreaming to close gender and diversity gaps in the region.  

Moreover, the programme aims to scale up private climate finance through local actors by combining advisory services with concessional financing from GCF, which will enhance the region's climate resilience and sustainable development. By mobilising 3.4 times the funding from IDB Invest and other co-financiers, it will help reduce the existing climate finance gap for SIDS in the Caribbean region.

In the past two decades, there has been an 83 per cent global increase in the frequency of major climate-related disasters, such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and violent maritime weather. Low- and middle-income economies bear the heaviest burden related to these events. Yet climate adaptation investments in the most vulnerable, least prepared states are often too few and too far between to meet their adaptation needs. The estimated annual cost of adaptation in these countries is expected to reach as much as 500 billion per year in 2050. To meet the adaptation needs of the most vulnerable countries, public and private financiers have to work together in investment partnerships. This is the driving force behind Project GAIA.   

Project GAIA will establish a blended finance platform that offers long-term loans for climate adaptation and mitigation investments in 19 of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world - making funding accessible through sources previously unattainable to participating countries. To answer to the immediate needs of developing countries, the platform allocates 70 per cent of its portfolio investments towards adaptation projects; with a further allocation of 25 per cent for Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, ensuring that funding reaches the most climate vulnerable communities. The project targets countries facing similar challenges in accessing climate finance for their pipeline of high-impact adaptation projects.

Geography

Jamaica

Recent documents

Adaptation Fund

Climate Investment Funds

Green Climate Fund

Global Environment Facility