Dr James Fletcher (left) and Ramón Méndez Galain (right) at the launch of the REN21 Renewable Energy Champions Initiative in Miami. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS
By Alison Kentish
MIAMI, Florida, USA, May 12 2025 – The Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), a global network that advances renewable energy through collaboration and knowledge sharing, has named Dr James Fletcher of Saint Lucia and Dr Ramón Méndez Galain of Uruguay as its first Renewable Energy Champions.
The accomplished former energy ministers were introduced as REN21 RE Champions on May 9, at the 17th Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum in Miami. They were recognised for their exemplary leadership in driving energy transition in their respective countries and region.
The RE Champions Initiative will connect experienced policymakers with peers globally to share knowledge, practical guidance, and successes and inspire much-needed action.
Fletcher, who led Saint Lucia’s Ministry of Sustainable Development and Energy, described joining the initiative as “one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make.”
He reiterated the urgency of energy reform in the Caribbean, where electricity costs often go as high as 35 to 40 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour – a major barrier to competitiveness.
“If we can crack that, if we can get that transition to happen quickly, every single economic sector in our region becomes competitive on all of our islands,” he said.
“If we can crack that, if we can get this transition to happen quickly,” Fletcher told IPS, “every single economic sector in our region becomes competitive.”
Dr. Méndez Galain, a physicist who was the architect of Uruguay’s transformation to a grid powered by 98 percent renewables, spoke to IPS about that country’s journey. He emphasised the importance of political consensus in achieving lasting change and said he is happy to share his experience and expertise with peers.
“One of the first and most important things we succeeded in doing was to have a long-term agreement that was backed by the entire Uruguayan political system. This was crucial and allowed us to have continuity in the process,” Méndez Galain said. He added, “We proved that a power system can work only thanks to the complementarity of different resources. It was a technical issue, but it was not rocket science. At the end of the day, it was relatively simple to solve.”
Uruguay’s transition, he noted, slashed electricity production costs by half and created 50,000 jobs, about 3 percent of the country’s workforce. “We proved that energy transition can work, but it would not happen spontaneously. You have to really make changes in the policies, regulations, laws, and institutional framework in the markets. This is what we are trying to share with our current ministers and officials from our region,” he said.
Fletcher, the Caribbean Community’s Climate Change envoy, pointed to Uruguay’s success as proof that even grid systems reliant on intermittent sources like wind and solar can remain stable and efficient. “What Ramón has been able to show is that it can be done with intermittent renewables, because one of the things that keeps being hammered at us is that if you only have intermittent sources of electricity, you cannot do this. He’s shown in Uruguay that he can do it. That it can be done,” he said.
Both champions emphasised the power of South-South collaboration and the need to scale this model to other regions.
“Establishing these partnerships through an organisation like REN21—with its global reach—was a no-brainer,” Fletcher said. “At the end of the day, our goal is to ensure that we see a complete phase-out of fossil fuels.”
Méndez Galain expressed enthusiasm for collaborating with his Saint Lucian colleague and the REN21 network.
“Having the chance to work with people like Fletcher – it’s incredible to me because he is an inspiring guy,” he said. “REN21 is a powerful network that embraces and boosts everything that we can say with tremendous potential links to organisations that can help governments to do their jobs.”
REN21’s Senior Advisor, Laura Williamson, told the launch that the RE Champions Initiative bridges the gap between technology, policy, and leadership.
“It is built around champions who bring real-world experience, who have overcome challenges to achieve remarkable results in their own countries and can offer strategic partnerships to accelerate energy transition.”
“We have the technology; we have the resources. But what is really missing is the exchange of knowledge, the capability of partnerships, and the connections,” she said in a sit-down with IPS. “It’s really to demonstrate how connecting the decision-makers to the data, to the stories, to the experiences, can drive energy transition. Also to demonstrate that this is possible, so let’s do it.”
The initiative is fully funded by philanthropic contributions and champions volunteer their time and expertise. REN21 plans to expand the programme to include experts from Asia and Africa, strengthening cross-regional collaboration and unlocking shared solutions across the Global South.
The REN21 Champions say while a sustainable energy future is within reach, accelerating progress will require greater urgency—and connection and collaboration will serve as the catalysts to drive it forward.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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