What’s Happening in the Caribbean: Innovation, Opportunity, & Transition

Sunday Reflections — September 2025

The Caribbean is in a period of exciting flux. Between climate pressures, energy transitions, a fast-evolving tech landscape, and the drive for economic diversification, there’s a lot going on. Below are some of the major trends and stories that are shaping the region — and what they might mean for innovators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers like us at Teluscope.

1. Beyond Oil: Energy & Economic Diversification in Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidad & Tobago, long heavily reliant on oil and gas, is nearing a crossroads. Oil output has declined meaningfully, and while natural gas still plays a large part in the economy, projections suggest reserves will last only about a decade at current rates. 

This has sparked renewed conversations and strategies around renewable energy, green hydrogen, offshore wind, and boosting non-energy sectors like tourism, manufacturing, and creative industries. For innovators, this opens space for climate tech, sustainable infrastructure, and alternative energy solutions.

2. Digital Transformation & AI Governance Taking Center Stage

Policy, regulation, and capacity-building around digital technologies are gaining momentum. The region is investing in understanding how to govern AI responsibly, how to build resilient infrastructure, and how to ensure meaningful connectivity so that no one is left behind. 

Institutions like the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), UN ECLAC, and regional banks are involved in these initiatives. This is not simply about tech for tech’s sake — it’s about using digital tools to support development goals, resilience, and inclusion.

3. Innovation Hubs, Startups & Capacity Building

There are many signal moments of growing capacity:

The IDB TechLab in Trinidad & Tobago is a regional hub for emergent technologies, intended to push forward innovation and digital growth.  The Founder Institute is organizing bootcamps and events to help Caribbean entrepreneurs launch and scale.  Summits and schools focused on digital transformation (e.g. the “School of Digital Transformation and Innovation in the Caribbean”) are elevating discussion around AI governance, infrastructure resilience, regulatory frameworks, finance, and policy. 

These create fertile ground for ideas to surface, for networks to form, and for startups to access mentorship, investment, and partnerships.

4. Turning Crises into Opportunities: Food Security & Environmental Innovation

There are stories of resilience and creativity too. For example, in Cuba, a startup called Enparalelo is growing microgreens in shipping containers in poor neighborhoods, training locals, and supplying upscale restaurants. It’s not only helping with food security, but building community capacity. 

Another area: the rising problem of sargassum seaweed across parts of the Caribbean, which harms beaches and tourism. Scientists are exploring ways to repurpose it into biofuel, packaging materials, fertilizers, even structural materials a potential win in sustainability and economic opportunity. 

5. Challenges Ahead and What Needs to Happen

While there’s energy and momentum, some big challenges remain:

Funding gaps, especially for early-stage startups and for vulnerable or remote communities. Infrastructure (connectivity, power, digital infrastructure) that’s often fragile, affected by climate events, and under-resourced. Policy/regulation lag in many places, laws and regulation haven’t caught up to rapidly evolving tech (e.g., AI, data privacy). Climate risks hurricanes, rising seas, extreme weather are not future threats; they damage infrastructure, displace people, disrupt economies now.

6. Why this Matters for Teluscope & Our Community

At Teluscope, we believe in turning ideas into impact. The trends above show both the need and the opportunity:

Opportunities to support sustainable solutions, climate tech, and green energy innovations. The rising importance of digital inclusion, equitable access, and responsible tech means that solutions must be thoughtful and human-centered. As innovation hubs, we have a role in helping build capacity through mentoring, partnerships, and enabling access (to capital, networks, expertise). Crises—whether economic, environmental, or health—also create openings for creative interventions.

Looking Ahead: Ideas to Watch & Ways to Engage

Here are a few areas we at Teluscope and our partners might want to focus on:

Tech + Climate Hybrids — combining environmental sustainability with emerging tech (renewables, bio-materials, circular economy). AI & Digital Governance Tools — solutions that help governments and organizations manage data, privacy, and policies. Food Systems Innovations — urban agriculture, logistics, supply chain resilience. Connectivity & Infrastructure Resilience — not just internet access, but reliable power, redundancy against climate shocks. Collaborations & Cross-Caribbean Scaling — solutions developed in one island can often stretch across others; shared learning, shared markets.

Conclusion

The Caribbean is not waiting. It’s redefining itself in the face of shifting global forces — climate, geopolitics, economics. For innovators, thinkers, entrepreneurs, there’s an urgent call: to be part of the transformation. To build solutions that are sustainable, inclusive, resilient.

At Teluscope, our mission of turning ideas into impact fits squarely into this moment. The question isn’t if we’ll change — it’s how fast and how well.