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| Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe.(FP)?? |
Barbados is listed as one of seven countries in the world that have undertaken and succeeded in completing the Green Economy Scoping Study.
And, Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe, has disclosed that a report will soon be laid in Parliament outlining in detail the various aspects of the study as the country pursued programmes to achieve a green economy.
Speaking during a recent interview with the Barbados Government Information Service, Dr. Lowe said Barbados was now among such countries like as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Moldova, Namibia, Nepal, Peru and Ukraine, who have undertaken and completed the study. Ghana, Kenya, Serbia and South Africa are also expected to have their studies completed shortly.
Copies of those studies and reports may be downloaded from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) website at http://www.unep.org/.
"That is a major achievement. It is an achievement where the assistance of the United Nations Environment Programme, the Government of Barbados and the University of the West Indies worked together to do a comprehensive scoping of key sectors in Barbados including agriculture, fisheries, housing, transport, [and] tourism, as part of that hub of services that play [a critical role] to help us achieve some sustainable economic growth and development," the Minister stated.
Dr. Lowe added that Barbados was also working with UNEP to become recognised as the lead country in the region on advising other Caribbean states on how they could undertake the pursuit of similar studies to give them a full scope of where they are in terms of their practices and living standards as they pursued the establishment of a green economy.
He added that as Government moved into its second term in office, it was fortifying its efforts and focus to achieve the desired outcomes. To do so, he noted that Government was beginning its pursuit of programmes that would allow it to achieve a green economy.
Dr. Lowe cited the Green Energy Programme at Vaucluse, St. Thomas, as one such programme where Government had taken a policy position to work towards the discontinuation of landfilling in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "It will redound to the emergence of a new platform for renewable energy in that we are undertaking four major projects at the Vaucluse site," he said.
Those projects include a landfill gas-to-energy facility, wind energy, solar energy and waste-to-energy, the latter of which involves the conversion of waste to alternative energy.
"That project is at the heart of us recognising that Barbados is a small island developing state with minimal land space much of which has already been given to the construction of homes and businesses," he noted.
Noting that the continuation of landfilling was an unsustainable approach the country could not afford, Dr. Lowe underscored the importance of the Green Energy Programme saying that it was a critical part of the country’s green economy pursuits.
However, he pointed out that other projects and programmes such as those related to air quality and noise pollution had a role to play in establishing a green economy.