H.E. Mr. Vince Henderson

The ultimate goal of SIDS DOCK is to increase energy efficiency by 25 percent (2005 baseline) and to generate a minimum of 50 percent of electric power from renewable sources and a 50 percent decrease in conventional transportation fuel use by 2033. As the SIDS DOCK™ begins to work with private sector companies, universities and governments to facilitate research across a range of specific environmental settings, technologies and best practices, the ILIN™ will be uniquely placed to provide an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of these information assets – including databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise, and experience in SIDS experts located around the globe.

In August 2013, the SIDS DOCK™ made an official request to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), to assist the small island developing states in the Caribbean, Pacific, Indian Ocean and Africa, in the creation of a SIDS network of regional sustainable energy centers. With support worth millions of Euros from the Government of Austria, validation workshops were conducted in July 2014, of the first Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) in Dominica, and the Pacific Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (PCREEE), in Fiji, with support to African SIDS coming from the ECOWAS ECREEE in Cabo Verde, and an Indian Ocean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centre (IOCREEE) to follow.

The ILIN™ will play an important part in developing the knowledge management capabilities within these regions. Using data to guide decisions is certainly nothing new. We are moving from a time of data poverty, in which data-driven decision making relied primarily on individual studies, to a time of data abundance, in which multiple studies are aggregated and collected frequently. But we must move quickly from being data rich to being information rich. There is already a tremendous amount of data produced in the SIDS about renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency and conservation (EEC).

By participating in the ILIN™, SIDS DOCK™ members will gain access to next-generation digital tools, services, platforms, and systems. We are just beginning to understand how these data can inform our understanding of the sustainable energy economy within the small island developing states. The ILIN™ is already working with the GEF-UNEP Energy for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Caribbean Buildings Project. The project’s objective is to transfer and implement sustainable energy policies, instruments and knowledge in five Pilot Caribbean SIDS through the promotion of energy efficiency applications and renewable energy use within the residential and public building sector.

The ILIN™ has created a project website and drop box, http://esd.sidsdock.org, that will address a number of barriers including information, regulatory, appliance standards, capacity building and financial barriers with the expectation that the information and lessons learned can be scaled up to the rest of the region. I hope you enjoy visiting this new virtual knowledge network that has been created by the SIDS for the SIDS.

We hope you find it as a useful tool.

H.E. Mr. Vince Henderson Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative of the Commonwealth of Dominica to the United Nations Chair, SIDS DOCK Steering Committee