ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Sep 19 2015 – The Environment Division is forging ahead with plans to make the twin island state the most environmentally friendly country in the region and the Renewable Energy Capital of the Eastern Caribbean.
This was disclosed during consultations held at the Environment Division with a high profile delegation from the People’s Republic of China this week.
During the discussions, Environment Officer Lia Nicholson expounded on the country’s need for the new technology and presented a slide show demonstrating the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), which shows how the country is adapting to climate change in a sustainable way.
Chief Environment Officer, Dianne Black-Layne and the rest of her team were also in attendance and she made it known that Antigua and Barbuda is leading the charge in the fight against climate change and the protection of the environment.
The delegation also met with Health and Environment Minister, Molwyn Joseph who is fully supportive of the venture and believes that moving towards renewable energy has tremendous benefits for the country, both economically and environmentally.
“Antigua and Barbuda has one of the highest costs for electricity in the entire Caribbean, it is not sustainable, so we are really in need of assistance for the water catchments and for renewable energy and we are pursuing this aggressively,” Joseph said.
“And if you are to listen to the Prime Minister lately, we want to make Antigua and Barbuda the powerhouse of the Caribbean, if you are going to make this country the powerhouse of the region, it cannot be on fossil fuel, it has to be on renewable energy and the other thing is that we cannot afford for our competitors to be ahead of us on this thing because they will be in a better position to market their country, so we want to be ahead in the introduction of renewable energy.”
Joseph also called for the subject of renewable technology to be taught in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
“We have a lot of young people with good education, who cannot find jobs and yet we are looking at going into the area of renewable technology; why is it that we cannot teach it at the university and work with the Chinese to get their input and we build the panels in Antigua if possible or if we don’t build them, we can assemble them and then we can look at the OECS market and become competitive,” Joseph said.
The Minister also spoke of the Big Creek Bridge in the South of the Island as being the very first project undertaken by the Chinese Government in Antigua-Barbuda and highlighted future plans for building two dams in the Bendals area to help boost the island’s water resources.
