A Comparative Exploration of Green Energy Transition Outcomes Across Small Island Developing States: Jamaica, Barbados, and Mauritius

Within the last few decades, the notion of a greener economy and the movement towards it, has become more tightly integrated with the global sustainable development agenda. Otherwise referred to as energy transition, one outcome of this shift has been the green energy targets set by small island developing states (SIDS). Up to twenty-three (23) SIDS identified the movement towards green energy as a green transition priority area. SIDS’ isolated geography, social and economic conditions, make them ideal for understanding the green energy transition (GET) experience within a well-defined geographic boundary. These small and vulnerable economies face many constraints and are some of the most affected by climate change. Although signatories to several international agreements, limited evidence-based literature exists on the GET experiences and outcomes within and across SIDS contexts. In this PhD, I examine the cross-country variances in GET experiences and outcomes across SIDS. I do so by assessing the drivers and barriers within these countries using comparative case study analysis of the islands of Jamaica, Barbados, and Mauritius. In doing so, I adopt an integrative approach, lending from leading GET-related scholarship pertaining to: sustainable development, small states, the green economy, climate governance, sustainability transitions, diffusion research, and polycentricity theory, to systematically explore the variances across the three SIDS’ green energy transition landscapes.