NASSAU, Bahamas, March 31 2015 – Hoteliers from throughout The Bahamas are participating in the Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Action-Advanced Programme (CHENACT-AP).
The objective of the CHENACT-AP, in The Bahamas, is to improve the competitiveness of small and medium sized hotels (with fewer than 400 rooms) through improved use of energy, with the emphasis on renewable energy and micro-generation.
The first phase of the programme involves energy audits of participating hotels and recommendations on how to improve energy savings. The energy audits will then be transformed into financial proposals that could be presented to international or local financial institutions to obtain funding for implementation. The programme will fund energy audits up to a total amount of $1 million for participating hotels in the Bahamas.
Energy-related costs represent 15 to 20 percent of a hotel’s operating budget, according to the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA). The CHENACT-AP is also scheduled to be launched in Jamaica this month. The first phase of the CHENACT was initially executed in Barbados.
The project will aim to bundle the carbon emission reductions from all three countries, The Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica, as a result of the energy efficiency measures and renewable energy applications. The project will develop a Programme of Activities as climate finance instruments to bundle the CHENACT-AP reduced emissions and sell these in the international carbon markets.
The programme is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and it is being executed by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) with the technical support of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST).
