And also today Vice President Harris also met with CARICOM to discuss their issues - which focus heavily on the climate crisis facing small island developing states.
We are told the meeting was a deviation from the schedule - but CARICOM had taken a hardline saying they mightn't sign the Summit Declaration unless concrete steps were taking to deal with their issues.
Here's what Vice President Harris told the CARICOM meeting this afternoon about a clean energy initiative:
Kamala Harris - US Vice President
"As neighbors in the western hemisphere, the United States shares common bonds and interest with Caribbean nations. As I said when we convened 6 weeks ago, our partnership is key to our shared propriety and security. Today our main focus will the climate crisis which of course is an existential crisis for our entire planet and the Caribbean is on the front line of this crisis. Today I'm pleased to announce the launch of the United States Caribbean partnership to address the climate crisis also known as PACC 2030. PACC 2030 is the United State government's primary mechanism for addressing energy security and the climate crisis in this region. Through this partnership, we will support energy infrastructure and climate resilient projects at every stage of development from beginning to end in 4 particular ways. First, we will work with you to identify new clean energy projects. Second, we will provide technical assistance to make sure these projects are viable and appealing not only to you but to investors. We will bring then investors to the Caribbean on roadshows to showcase the projects and fourth and finally, we will improve access and importantly we will improve access to development financing which will make these projects a reality."
Dr. Carla Barnett - CARICOM Secretary General
"We are therefore pleased to have this conversation, we are aware that our own public sector fiscal constraints limit the extent to which our governments can finance and transition to renewable and therefore the undertaking to provide sources of financing that our private sector can access is really very important."
We are told that the next step is setting up an "Actionable Committee" to look at Energy Security, Food Security and Access to affordable financing...
President Biden also met with CARICOM leaders, we are told.
