FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
March 31, 2026
SYGNUS CAPITAL RETURNS WITH BUSINESS AT BREAKFAST SUMMIT, DRIVING URGENT CALL TO MOBILISE CAPITAL FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN THE CARIBBEAN
(Kingston, Jamaica) – Sygnus Capital marked the return of its Business at Breakfast Summit on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, reaffirming its position as a leading catalyst for sustainable investment in the Caribbean. Held under the theme “Building Resilience: Mobilising Capital for a Sustainable Caribbean”, the summit convened leaders from government, finance, and industry to explore how strategic capital deployment can address climate risk, infrastructure gaps, and long-term economic resilience across the region.
The summit brought together leading voices shaping the region’s sustainable investment landscape: Matthew Samuda, Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change; Gerardo Aguilar, Head of Climate and Energy at Sygnus USA; and Emanuel DaRosa, Founder and CEO of SunTerra Energy. Moderated by James Connor, Sygnus Capital Puerto Rico CEO, the discussion examined renewable energy expansion, climate-smart infrastructure, and the policy and investment frameworks required to scale sustainable development across the Caribbean.
Aguilar provided a global and regional perspective on climate investment dynamics, noting, “The Caribbean contributes just 1% of global CO2 emissions, yet it is on the frontline of climate impacts. Across the region, investors continue to face common challenges, including fragmented markets, limited scale, and geopolitical risk. However, the opportunity lies in structuring the right financial and legal frameworks to allow capital to flow efficiently into the Caribbean, leveraging science, technology, and proven models from other markets. By addressing these barriers, the region can unlock significant investment in sectors such as energy, water, and climate-resilient infrastructure.”
During the discussion, panellists also explored in detail how capital can be mobilised and deployed more effectively across priority sectors. Key themes included the urgent need for development capital to transform early-stage ideas into bankable projects, as well as the importance of aligning policy, execution timelines, and risk-return expectations. Additionally, discussions highlighted opportunities in renewable energy, particularly the transition from intermittent to dispatchable power through battery storage, alongside major investment potential in water infrastructure, climate-smart agriculture, and the blue economy. Panellists emphasised that while global capital exists, unlocking it requires stronger project preparation, regulatory clarity, and execution capacity across the region.
Minister Samuda underscored the Government’s data-driven and policy-backed approach to resilience, stating: “One of the pillars is closing the science and technology nexus with policy. We are engaging best-in-class scientific study and technology to ensure our resilience design meets the challenges we face. It is an interesting time where climatic, geopolitical and political risks – three unique risks – are in many ways colliding at the same time. For us, the focus is on analysing our risk profile using best-in-class science and technology, and the process we have used is anchored in a system we call the Jamaica Systemic Risk Assessment Tool, which is the first of its kind in the developing world. He further pointed to a growing pipeline of bankable national projects. “In the Jamaican context, the climate risk has created opportunities for resilience building across energy, infrastructure, water and climate-smart agriculture, and virtually every sector of the economy. We will go to market with a billion to a billion-point-three worth of projects over the next 16 to 18 months, so you do have bankable, ready, acceptable projects that we’ve developed, with significant opportunities for investment in public infrastructure, including roads, rail, logistics and housing.”
The summit also highlighted the role of innovative financing mechanisms in accelerating investment. Blended finance emerged as a critical tool to de-risk projects and crowd in private capital, while the Caribbean Community Resilience Fund (CCRF) was referenced as a key regional initiative supporting investments in renewable energy, water security, agriculture, and coastal protection. The discussion reinforced that beyond financing, expertise, execution capacity, and strategic alignment are essential to translating opportunity into impact.
Closing the summit, Berisford Grey, President and CEO of Sygnus Capital, emphasised the importance of scale and collaboration in building resilience across the region. He noted: “Resilience is fundamentally about how economies absorb shocks, adapt, and recover with momentum, ideally stronger than before. For the Caribbean, that means investing in core sectors like infrastructure, climate, water, and food security at scale. The region requires significant capital, estimated at over US$100 billion over the next decade, but the opportunity is equally significant. Impact investing is now a US$1.5 trillion market and growing, and real capital is being deployed into resilience-focused sectors globally. Our challenge is to position the Caribbean to attract that capital by strengthening our track record and creating the right frameworks to de-risk investments. This cannot be done through small, incremental projects; we must think boldly, act at scale, and mobilise both regional and international capital to truly transform our economies.”
