Don’t rush into a natural gas pipeline deal with Trinidad and Tobago because it would lock Barbados into a long-term natural gas economy.
Such a deal wouldn’t be good for the economy and the environment.
That’s the expert advice of Dr Hugh Sealy, the Barbadian who was recently elected to be the chairman of the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism’s executive board, the international body which gives governments, private firms and individuals the green light to fund greenhouse gas reduction projects in developing countries and in return receive carbon credits.
“If I had to give professional advice to the Barbadian Government it would be to stay away from locking yourself into a contract with Trinidad and Tobago to buy natural gas because it would lock you into a natural gas economy,” he told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY in a telephone interview from Bonn, Germany where he was attending a meeting.
“There are better alternatives. Barbados should pursue indigenous renewable energy such as solar and wind. It should also consider pursuing innovative renewable energy technology which hasn’t been commercially proven yet but other (Caribbean) islands are going after it. Ocean thermal energy conversion, for instance is another option. It can also pursue relationships with other islands that have abundant sources of renewable energy.”And the places he has in mind range from
St Lucia and St Vincent to Grenada and Dominica, all of which have potentially abundant sources of geo-thermal energy, he said. Sealy, a professor at the St George’s University in Grenada, said that Barbados should also consider establishing a link with Guyana which “has abundant sources of hydro” that would be better for the economy and the environment than gas.
“You can hook yourself by electricity cable to these other places in the Caribbean,” he said. “You would be getting green energy. The ideal option is still to go with indigenous sources of renewable energy. Unfortunately, Barbados doesn’t have geo-thermal (energy) so it can’t rely on that. But it can maximize wind energy, solar energy. It can make its print smart so that it can have maximum penetration of intermittent sources of renewable energy and it can pursue ocean energy as well.”
Sealy readily acknowledged that the proposed Trinidad pipeline deal would be “good in a short term” for Barbados because, depending on the contract and the price of the gas, “it might, might be cheaper for the Barbados Light & Power to change to that gas” instead of continuing to rely on the imported heavy fuel oil.
“Yes, in the short-term it might bring down electricity prices depending on the price of gas in the contract,” Sealy noted. “You can also argue that gas is half as dirty as coal so you would be reducing the amount of emissions put into the atmosphere. In the short-term that sounds good.
“But in the long-term, what you would have done, though, is you would have locked yourself infrastructure-wise and investment wise into using natural gas for the next 30 years.
“Therefore, you would have locked out other options that you might have been able to pursue and that would offer Barbados a better energy arrangement.”
Sealy is the third person from the Caribbean elected to head the UN panel that oversees the global carbon market. His Caribbean predecessors were from Jamaica and Antigua & Barbuda.