Former?Minister of Energy Liz?Thompson, now assistant secretary general of the United Nations and executive coordinator of the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil next month, is hopeful that the global conference will raise the level of understanding for the Caribbean countries of the implications of the Sustainable Energy For All Initiative being pursued.
She is as hopeful that regional leaders and representatives will see the initiative presenting them with opportunities.
Already we have had the SE4ALL High-Level Conference Of SIDS taking place on May 7 and 8 in Barbados, followed by the Rio+20 SIDS Informal Ministerial Meeting on May 9 at the same Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
The conference, organized by the Government of Barbados in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Multi-Country Office for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), was attended by about 150 participants, including representatives from governments, the United Nations, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and the private sector.
Heads of Government and ministers of 29 small island developing states (SIDS) took part in the High-Level Conference and Rio+20 SIDS Informal Ministerial Meeting.
At the end of the SE4ALL High-Level Conference Of SIDS, participants adopted the Barbados Declaration On Achieving Sustainable Energy For All, which recognizes challenges and opportunities in achieving sustainable energy and welcomes the voluntary commitments by 18 states to promote transformational activities in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy access, and low-carbon development.
A mouthful – however you look at it.
And this may have triggered Prime Minister Freundel Stuart into advising fellow leaders that all these sessions of discussion on sustainable energy needed to be more than talk shops. They must make their actions consistent with their words.
Said he: “The time for talking is over. The time for concrete and concerted action is upon us.”
We ourselves will hold Mr Stuart to these very words, given that for some time now in our own space the urgent need for sustainable energy use, even if recognized, has been a mere topic for exercise, at best, in brainstorming; at worst, in objectified selfhood.
If the effort expended in Barbados last week is not supported by serious and committed action, it will all be rendered meaningless.
Let it not be misunderstood: the SIDS must be prepared, as the Prime Minister has said, for “battle”. They must be determined to walk the talk – get past the rhetoric.
