THE ISSUE: Is a truly green economy possible?
THE?GREEN ECONOMY – undoubtedly one of the most talked about issues within the past decade.
Many people are still not certain what is meant by the green economy since it has evolved and apparently means different things to different people and, indeed, economies.
For us in?Barbados, the green economy certainly means sustainable development with a focus on developing renewable energy and improving energy efficiency, maintaining our environment and even making it better for future generations.
Perhaps most important, we have to institute change.
Barbados, among all the Caribbean islands, had shown great interest in some aspects of the green economy many years ago. It had been able to develop a solar water heating industry that has been the envy of others.
Unfortunately, the brilliance of late Professor Oliver Headley and the support of CADEC, particularly Reverend Andrew Hatch and the late Reverend David Mitchell, and the entrepreneurship of James Husbands have not been moved much further in the practical application of the energy from the sun.
Indeed, permanent secretary Lionel Weekes in the Ministry of Environment, speaking in July last year at the launch of the 2010 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development World Investment Report at UN House,?Marine Gardens, Christ Church, acknowledged that more had to be done with solar energy than merely heating water.
“The solar industry has done well but it needs to move another step.
We need to move in the direction of powering entire households with solar energy and the opportunity exists for Government to look at expanding solar energy applications to a wider area.”
Easy to say. However, one of the things both supporters and skeptics are agreed on is that the switch to a green economy will call for a change in attitudes, more regulation, and we will need to spend more money up front.
At the same time it will allow innovators, inventors, financiers and entrepreneurs to become involved and create a host of new jobs, ranging from engineers and technicians to salesmen and marketers.
A green economy can benefit and change our education system in that we can develop new courses of study at the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill campus and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic.
The challenges facing the economies of many of the world’s leading countries and their trickle-down effect on Barbados has taught us that the model of development used by the United States and some European countries is riddled with problems.
Dependence on imported energy from fossil fuels has hampered us in many ways – the cost of production is made all the more expensive; we have no control over what the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), market manipulators or international events do to push up oil prices but to accept the pain; then we have to spend an increasing amount of foreign exchange to feed the pig called “imported energy”.
It is interesting to note that the strongest economy in Europe, Germany, has set a good example in developing a green economy. It has not only lowered its dependence on fossil fuels but also created a new economic engine that is cleaner and provides more jobs.
Since the oil crisis in the 1970s, Germany has begun to cut energy consumption and look for alternative resources. In 1986,?Germany set up a federal ministry to regulate issues on environment and energy policy.
Consequently by 2008, renewable energy sources have accounted for 15.1 per cent of total German power consumption and helped cut greenhouse-gas emission by 112 million tons. It employed over 280 000 people and had a turnover of 30 billion euros.
Given the changes required, Antigua’s Minister of Tourism John Maginley has made the point that in the global landscape, Barbados and indeed the Caribbean have an opportunity to contribute fresh, forward thinking while demonstrating leadership in the quest for a green economy.
This is a position with which Barbados seems to agree. Minister of Water Resources Dr David Estwick, while serving as Minister of Economic Affairs in August last year, told the Barbados Network Consultation 2010 that Government was determined to succeed at wind farming, producing alternative and renewable energy, converting waste to energy, and solar electricity.
“The Government of Barbados has set as a priority the development of a green economy, and has offered concessions to businesses and investors who are developing products geared to energy conservation and the minimisation of the use of fossil fuels.”
Unfortunately, while there has been much talk from both the political directorate and the technocrats, some entrepreneurs and even NGOs have complained about the tardiness in even acknowledging letters of interest sent to various Government offices.
The other complaint is that some of the conferences and seminars promoting alternate energy and environmental protection have been undertaken in such a way as to keep many of the small players, NGOs and budding entrepreneurs out of the loop.
While we wait to get things going in a major way, we need to do small things. The Sanitation Services Authority has already successfully undertaken a green-conscious sorting of garbage before disposal in Marchfield, St Philip, and entrepreneur Mark Hill has led a similar initiative in parts of the Cane Garden, St Thomas area.
The Nation Publishing Company has also made significant efforts to become a green-certified business and the company’s CEO, Vivian-Anne Gittens, has said: “It saves money and it sustains the business in the long term.”
As former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in March of this year while delivering the keynote address at the ARPA-Energy Innovation Summit in Washington, DC, “We want a new era of energy independence, a new era of green technology and gree jobs, a new era of better health from a cleaner environment. . . .”
With an abundance of sunlight and consistent wind, Barbados needs to institute at the national level what a small but growing number of householders and businesses have been looking for – how best to use renewable energy and also maintain our environment through sustainable living.
Listen to common sense from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has noted that striving for the green economy is “an ambitious goal, but it is achievable and is necessary”.
