> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # IRENA Puts the Caribbean's Climate Pledge Gap at US$9 Billion. An Audit the Same Month Found Four Countries Had Weakened Their Targets. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/caricom-47-per-cent-renewables-2027-nine-billion-gap-irena-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-21T14:41:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-01T05:20:05.000Z - Description: IRENA says meeting Caribbean Nationally Determined Contributions needs another US$9 billion and around 4 GW, against a CARICOM target of 47 per cent renewables by 2027. Ember, publishing on 1 October 2026, found four of thirteen countries had weakened or dropped their targets since 2021. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Caribbean, Energy, Analysis **Quick summary:** IRENA says meeting Caribbean Nationally Determined Contributions needs another US$9 billion and around 4 GW, against a CARICOM target of 47 per cent renewables by 2027\. Ember, publishing on 1 October 2026, found four of thirteen countries had weakened or dropped their targets since 2021. By LCN Business Desk A price on a set of promises, and an audit showing the promises move. Two organisations published on the Caribbean energy transition this month. One costed the commitments. The other checked whether the commitments still say what they said. ## What has IRENA put a figure on? The cost of meeting the Caribbean's national climate pledges, stated as an additional sum and an amount of capacity. The **International Renewable Energy Agency**, writing for an energy transition investment forum it co-hosted with the **Ministry of Energy and Mines of the Dominican Republic** in **Santo Domingo in October 2026**, states: "Meeting their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will require an additional USD 9 billion and around 4 GW of new capacity." On the regional target it states: "Caribbean nations face their own challenge as they work toward CARICOM's 47% renewables target by 2027." Central America is costed separately and on a different basis: approximately **US$3.5 billion in average annual investment** to build a decarbonised power system, which is a recurring flow rather than a single additional sum. ## How far does that figure reach? To IRENA, and no further on the record available. The sum appears on IRENA's own pages. **No IRENA report, study or methodology stating it has been located**, and the figure is published without a base year, without a country list and without a breakdown between the money and the megawatts. Ember's Caribbean report of the same month does not carry it. It is reported here as IRENA's figure, attributed, and it is not corroborated outside IRENA. **The US$9 billion attaches to the Nationally Determined Contributions, not to the 47 per cent target.** Those are separate commitments, lodged in different places and measured differently. ## What did the independent audit find? That four of thirteen Caribbean countries weakened or dropped their renewable targets between 2021 and 2025. **Ember** published *Renewable Caribbean: towards energy independence* on **1 October 2026**, written by Wilmar Suárez. It verified each target against its primary source, stating its method directly: Each target was checked against the instrument that created it: in Ember's words, "NDCs registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, decrees and national plans". Anything without such an instrument was left out, because "Figures circulating without an instrument behind them were excluded". Its findings on the targets: "Eleven of the thirteen countries analysed in this report have a renewable target. Only six measure it in terms of electricity generation, and of those, none had reached a fifth of their target by 2024\. Four of the thirteen weakened or dropped theirs since 2021." That is four of the 13 countries it analysed. | Country | The change, 2021 to 2025 | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Barbados | 95 per cent for 2030 "is maintained" but "now expected to be achieved by 2035" | | Saint Kitts and Nevis | 100 per cent moved from 2020 to 2030 | | Saint Lucia | 50 per cent for 2030 omitted in 2021, reappeared at 40 per cent in 2025 | | Haiti | Removed the 47 per cent it had set in 2015 | Source: Ember, Renewable Caribbean: towards energy independence, 1 October 2026. Two moved the other way. **Trinidad and Tobago** adopted a 30 per cent target for 2030 after missing a 10 per cent for 2021\. The **Dominican Republic**, which has no binding target, raised its renewable share of generation from 7.6 per cent to 16.6 per cent between 2015 and 2024, with solar going from 0.2 to 5.8 per cent and wind from 1.6 to 4.2 per cent. ## Who is expected to pay? On four of the six measurable targets, somebody outside the region. "Four of the six targets set on electricity generation are conditional on international finance; only Cuba's is unconditional, and Jamaica does not state either way." A cost of US$9 billion is pegged to pledges, and most of the pledges that can be measured are themselves pegged to money arriving from abroad. ## What does this mean for the rest of the Caribbean? That the target year is next year, and the two published numbers point in opposite directions. CARICOM's 47 per cent falls due in 2027\. On IRENA's figure the gap to the national pledges is US$9 billion and around 4 GW. On Ember's audit, none of the six countries with a generation target had reached a fifth of it by 2024, four of thirteen have moved their targets back or dropped them, and most of the remaining targets are conditional on external finance. Money can move in a single transaction. Capacity has to be sited, permitted, financed, built and connected across a set of small separate grids with their own regulators and utilities. CARICOM's Secretary-General told a Georgetown conference on 20 October that the region's export growth has come mostly from energy and commodities, reported in [CARICOM's Services Trade Runs a Surplus Above US$7.2 Billion](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/caricom-services-surplus-travel-82-per-cent-barnett-georgetown-2026/). Individual members are moving at very different speeds: Cuba's utility-scale solar and its storage position in [Cuba's 1,418 MW of Solar](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/cuba-1418mw-solar-50mw-storage-peak-hour-deficit-2026/), Uruguay's new solar against data-centre demand in [Uruguay's 500 MW](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/uruguay-solaria-500mw-data-centres-peak-demand-2026/), and Guyana's own gas-to-energy timetable in [Guyana's Gas-to-Energy Delay](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-gas-to-energy-delay-gpl-losses-solar-2026/). ### The entities - **International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)** published the investment and capacity figures. - **Ministry of Energy and Mines of the Dominican Republic** co-hosted the forum in Santo Domingo. - **Ember** is the energy think tank that published the target audit on 1 October 2026. - **Wilmar Suárez** wrote that report. - **CARICOM** is the Caribbean Community, which holds the 47 per cent renewables target for 2027. - **Nationally Determined Contributions** are the national climate pledges registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. ### What the title card shows Every data point on the article's title card, in text. - **US$9 billion.** IRENA's stated additional investment to meet Caribbean Nationally Determined Contributions. Source: IRENA. Not corroborated outside IRENA. - **4 GW.** The additional capacity stated for the same pledges. Source: as above. - **47 per cent.** CARICOM's renewables target, dated 2027\. Source: as above. - **Four of thirteen.** Caribbean countries that weakened or dropped a renewable target between 2021 and 2025\. Source: Ember, 1 October 2026. - **None.** Of the six countries with a generation target, the number that had reached a fifth of it by 2024\. Source: as above. - **Four of six.** Generation targets conditional on international finance. Source: as above. - **Quotation:** "Meeting their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will require an additional USD 9 billion and around 4 GW of new capacity." IRENA. ## Frequently Asked Questions How much more investment does the Caribbean need for its climate pledges? IRENA states an additional US$9 billion and around 4 GW of new capacity to meet Caribbean Nationally Determined Contributions. How well established is that figure? It is IRENA's. No IRENA report, study or methodology stating it has been located, and it carries no base year, no country list and no breakdown. It is not corroborated outside IRENA. What is CARICOM's renewable energy target? 47 per cent, by 2027. Does the US$9 billion buy that target? No. IRENA attaches the figure to the Nationally Determined Contributions, which are separate commitments from the regional 47 per cent target. Are Caribbean countries on track? Ember found that of the six countries measuring a target in terms of electricity generation, none had reached a fifth of it by 2024, and that four of the thirteen countries it analysed weakened or dropped their targets between 2021 and 2025. Which countries moved their targets? Barbados pushed 95 per cent from 2030 to 2035, Saint Kitts and Nevis moved 100 per cent from 2020 to 2030, Saint Lucia's 50 per cent for 2030 reappeared at 40 per cent in 2025, and Haiti removed the 47 per cent it set in 2015. Who is expected to fund the targets? Ember found four of the six generation targets are conditional on international finance. Only Cuba's is unconditional, and Jamaica does not state either way.