1.    Presentation of Expertise France

Expertise France (EF) is a public agency and the inter-ministerial actor in international technical cooperation, subsidiary of the Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD Group). As the second largest agency in Europe, it designs and implements projects that sustainably strengthen public policies in developing and emerging countries. Governance, security, climate, health, education… It operates in key areas of development and contributes alongside its partners to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a world in common.

2.    The Euroclima programme

Euroclima is the European Union's (EU) flagship cooperation programme on environmental sustainability and climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It aims to contribute to the LAC region's green transition, through efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and to protect and conserve biological diversity. Two main outcomes are expected:
- The enabling environment for a green transition (integrated policies, legal frameworks, sector plans and financial instruments) will be strengthened, in line with climate, biodiversity and circular economy objectives.
- Transformative approaches in key areas for the green transition will be developed, demonstrated and scaled up through the mobilization of public and private funding.

Euroclima contributes to the implementation of the Global Gateway Investment Agenda in the region. Global Gateway is the EU’s offer to bridge the infrastructure investment gap by using public financing to leverage private capital and investment for projects that contribute to the green and digital transition. In the Caribbean region, Euroclima is funded by the European Commission, for a 5-year period, and is implemented by EU Member States agencies or MSAs (AECID, Expertise France, FIIAPP, GIZ) and the United Nations (ECLAC, UNDP, UN Environment).
Through Euroclima, the EU has initiated Country Dialogues to enhance its role in defining cooperation priorities. The Country Dialogue is conducted with the key institutions for climate action in each country, which allows for the alignment of the programme’s strategies with nationally established priorities to ensure cohesion and synergies with other activities. In consultation and coordination with the country and under the leadership of the National Focal Point (NFP), the programme supports the design of the Dialogue process on a case-by-case basis.  
As part of Euroclima, and in alignment with the Global Gateway Investment Agenda (GGIA), Expertise France is supporting the formulation and implementation of regional and national actions on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Caribbean. One of the key priority areas identified relates to the energy transition, including renewable energy access in remote areas and support to national capacity in renewable energy (particularly, solar and wind but also marine energies) development.
This energy focus is particularly advanced in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), where national stakeholders and the EU Delegation have jointly prioritised this sector. Among the actions identified, the strengthening of T&T’s grid for major renewable energy integration, with global objective to improve and reinforce the country’s electrical grid network to integrate massive variable renewable energy sources. It is broken down in two main actions: 
• Assess the transmission system in Trinidad and Tobago to increase power system security and reliability, and identify grid reinforcement needs for large-scale renewable integration, delivering a detailed investment and development plan for grid update and extension. 
• Update the grid code with Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) to enable effective integration of variable renewables, including technical requirements and system services.
However, similar support is envisaged (or under discussion) in other countries of the Caribbean, where renewable energy access and transition remain central to national climate strategies. This work also aims to identify and leverage European investment opportunities to scale up sustainable energy solutions across the region.