Former Saint Lucia Minister with responsibility for Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, and Founder of the Caribbean Climate Justice Project, Dr. James “Jimmy” Fletcher, was elected as Chairman of the Executive Board of the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE) at the first meeting of the third cycle of the Board on Tuesday, 6 December.
At the same meeting, Mr. Thornley Myers, retired Chief Executive Officer of the St. Vincent Electricity Services Limited (VINLEC), was elected as the Board’s Vice-Chairman.
Dr. Fletcher, a native of Saint Lucia, provided yeoman leadership toward the development of the Caribbean’s “1.5 to Stay Alive” civil-society campaign in 2015, which helped to create momentum in the lead up to the negotiations of the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at COP21.
During the negotiations on the Paris Agreement, Dr. Fletcher was a member of a small group of ministers chosen to help achieve consensus on the Agreement, co-chairing a team that worked on its ambition and long-term temperature goal elements.
In recognition of his work, Dr. Fletcher was highlighted in Profiles of Paris as one of the people who played an important role in creating the Paris Agreement. He is the author of the chapter ‘The Battle for Small Island Developing States’ in the Cambridge University Press publication, Negotiating the Paris Agreement: The Insider Stories.
He is the author of the book, Governing in a Small Caribbean Island State.
Dr. Fletcher was instrumental in the establishment of the CCREEE and, as Minister with responsibility for energy in Saint Lucia from December 2011 to June 2016, he was a member of the CARICOM Energy Ministerial group that defined, among other things, the functionalities, structure, and governance arrangements for the Centre.
He also chaired the CARICOM Regional Task Force on Sustainable Development and the Regional Coordinating Committee on Climate Change.
Prior to his Ministerial appointment, Dr. Fletcher served in several public servant roles within the Government of Saint Lucia, to include Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister; and Cabinet Secretary and head of the public service.
Dr. Fletcher currently manages his own consulting company, SOLORICON.
Mr. Thornley Myers, a native of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is a career electric utility leader and, having led VINLEC for almost two decades, served for many years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Caribbean Electricity Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC).
The CCREEE Executive Board is tasked with provision of strategic guidance for the Centre and reports to the annual meetings of CARICOM Energy Ministers regarding the discharge of its duties. The full listing of CCREEE Executive Board Members are as follows:
| Country Representatives | Mr. Andrew Gittens Barbados |
| Dr. James Fletcher | |
| Saint Lucia | |
| Dr. Bertill Browne | |
| St. Kitts and Nevis | |
| Mr. Thornley Myers | |
| St. Vincent and the Grenadines | |
| Representative of the CARICOM Secretary General | Mr. Joseph Cox |
| Representative of the SIDS DOCK Chairman | Dr. Al Binger |
| Representatives of the Development Partners | Mr. Heinz Habertheuer
Austrian Development Agency Ms. Rana Ghoneim UNIDO |
| Executive Director of the CCREEE | Dr. Gary Jackson |
The Membership of the Executive Board will be completed with the addition of an Independent Representative, who would be selected from the private sector, civil society, or other non-state actors within the region, by CARICOM Energy Ministers at their next meeting.
SOURCE: Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Congrats, Dr. Fletcher, well done. Please avoid professional liars like Dominic Fedee on this commitee.
Desmond Haynes you gave me a good laugh…. The Napoleons factor never goes away….
How long before we hear from Fletcher regarding the co-operative initiative with Caricom, which was recently proposed by Cuba?
Or has Fletcher’s goal all along been to wheedle as much money as possible from western oligarchies, who are looking to buy carbon credits from Latin American, African & Asian countries if they can be persuaded to de-industrialize or remain forever undeveloped?
These old heads are jumping from jobs to jobs. By now he should be heading his own business and to try changing the environment with his qualifications/knowledge or build an industry to ease the effects of the changing environment. Be a Butch Stewart but no only holding government jobs.
1 year later please report how this board has bettered or improved anybody life in Lucai
Mates been begging to stay relevant somewhere.. happy he found a nest! Hoping this agency represents us developing nations and put pressure on the world superpowers on energy has Mia has been doing.
Only pushing UN agendas on people, all you’ll men are a bunch of puppets
Every day I wonder about the level of intelligence of St. Lucians. You would think that a St, Lucian landing a regional position, paid or voluntary, would be a moment for all of to be happy for them. Well, if you thought so check the comments made by idiots like Climate Changers, SMBH (how does the board become responsible for changing the lives of St. Lucians?), Next and Nudge.
@coming better everyone is entitled to their opinions however I think the St Lucia Times is giving too much free speech to some of these idiots
The acclaimed way off-Broadway production by the St. Lucia delegation to COP-15, was welcomed (perhaps, even commissioned) by western developed nations. It represented the ideological wedge of undeveloped countries, shimmed between western over-developed countries and Latin American, African, and Asian developing countries; the dog-and-pony skit had just the right amount of superficiality (a light opera, if you will) required to distract from the deep and dark schemes of western developed countries.
Western countries are only interested in using climate change as a means of rendering the development ambitions of undeveloped countries, still-born, and capping the development of developing nations. In this way, they can continue (in the case of the US) to keep the only industry they have left, the Military Industrial Complex, running at full capacity! Most readers do not know that the 800+ military bases around the world (together with their vehicles, planes & ships), owned by the US/NATO to surround its main competitors (viz., China & Russia), have a much larger carbon footprint than most developing countries in the world!
The plan has been to induce developing countries to stop their development activities completely, and for undeveloped countries to never start on the path to development. How, you ask? The scheme is to have both developing and undeveloped countries fight a price war among themselves to sell their “carbon credits” to the western developed countries – ingenious, don’t you think?
Fast forward 7 years of stasis regarding climate affairs, and the only person who has “profited” (per St. Lucians, pwo-fee-tay) is Fletcher (see his newly-attained chairmanship & whatever speaking engagements he has been paid for); was there any gain, in terms of climate control, for the general populace of St. Lucia and the Caribbean?
The eternal beggar lands a job – FINALLY!!!