Capacity Building Itinerary on Sustainable Energy Solutions for Islands and Territories at Risk for the Effects of Climate Change

Abstract

This paper presents the “Online Capacity Building and Certification Program on Sustainable Energy Solutions for Islands and Territories in the Pacific, Caribbean, Africa and Indian Ocean”, an itinerary to foster access to a high-quality technical scientific knowledge. This program has been developed by CIEMAT, the Spanish Center for Research in Energy, Environment and Technology as an initiative of the Global Network for Regional Sustainable Energy Centers supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization within the Sustainable Energy Island and Climate Resilience Initiative. The program has been conceived to meet the urgent need for affordable training and certification programs in sustainable energy on islands. The training of qualified professionals along the complete value chain of the sustainable energy sector is crucial for the deployment of sustainable energy and low-carbon climate technologies. This can be achieved by fostering the development of indigenous and renewable energy solutions to address economical and industrial productivity and competitiveness, energy security, affordable energy access and negative externalities of conventional energy (greenhouse gases emissions, local pollution). This educational and training project is aimed at meeting the general and specialized training needs required to establish a critical mass of personnel with broad skill levels. This includes persons from the general public to the public and private stakeholders in the sustainable energy sector (experts, engineers, project managers and financers, policy makers, etc.) capable of identifying, designing and implementing effective sustainable energy, climate change issues and disaster risk management measures.