In Focus

Student interns contribute to climate action in Caribbean

Regional Collaboration Centre St. George’s seeks expressions of interest

The Regional Collaboration Centres (RCCs) support national climate action through capacity-building, technical assistance and strategic networking – sourcing know-how and resources to drive clean development. There are five established RCCs across the globe, in Bangkok, Thailand; Bogota, Colombia; Kampala, Uganda; Lomé, Togo; and St. George’s, Grenada. One of the main functions of the RCCs is to build local and regional capacity to allow participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The St. George’s RCC has engaged and continues to engage academic institutions both within the region and beyond to create more awareness of clean development opportunities. These interactions have generated interest from the respective student bodies, resulting in several students travelling to Grenada to support the RCC activities and successfully completing on-site training.

This internship programme has attracted students from institutions such as the University of the West Indies, University of Reading and St. George’s University (SGU) School of Medicine. The interns participated in various work streams, including:

• Assistance to countries to submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)  
• Policy research in the energy and other relevant sectors
• Training on the use of carbon accounting (using CDM methodologies) for renewable energy technologies
• Calculation of grid emission factors and other standardized baselines
• Support to RCC’s operational tasks, in particular developing an understanding of the status of the CDM project activities in the Caribbean region.

Over the past three years, RCC St. George’s has brought together CDM project participants, governments, non-governmental organizations and funding agencies to intensify the efforts of this region to combat climate change. Dr. Hugh Sealy, professor at SGU and former chair of the UNFCCC CDM Executive Board has said, “Every practicum student/intern who spends time with the Centre obtains first-hand experience of the challenges and opportunities faced by small islands to mitigate climate change.”

Here are some potential areas of interest for future internships at RCC St. George’s:

• Estimation of greenhouse gas emission reduction potential for projects in different sectors, e.g. electricity generation, energy efficiency, transport, agriculture, industry, and waste management.
  
  
• Carbon accounting
  
  
• Climate change and energy policies
  
  
• Analysis of policy gaps for further deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency
  
  
• Analysis of NDCs and the level of finance, capacity-building and technical assistance that will be required to achieve national mitigation targets
  
  
• Research on business models and sources of funding (institutions, size, criteria) for clean technology projects, e.g. renewable energy and energy efficiency projects
  
  
• Climate finance opportunities for the Caribbean countries.

Come join us in our mission to support the region’s efforts to bring about sustainable, low-carbon and climate-resilient growth.

- - - - -

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat has signed a partnership agreement with the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF) to establish a regional collaboration centre in Saint George, Grenada in an effort to assist in the development of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in the region.