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| Prime Minister Freundel Stuart receiving a copy of??the report from Deputy Principal of the UWI Cave Hill Campus, Professor Eudine Barriteau. (A. Miller/BGIS)?? |
Financing is critical to the emergence of the Barbados green economy and the development and adoption of green initiatives.
This was one of the points highlighted in the Green Economy Scoping Study Synthesis Report which was handed over to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart last month.
The report outlined that the concept of green finance referred to market-based investing and lending schemes which took environmental factors into consideration.
Such factors could include car loans for vehicles powered by alternative fuels at preferential rates; venture capital for alternative energy projects; eco-savings deposits; certified emissions reduction certificates; environmental bonds; mortgages and green credit cards.
Local financing institutions such as the Enterprise Growth Fund Limited, the Energy Smart Fund, the Ministry of the Environment’s Grant to Non-Profit Organisation and the Government’s Consolidated Fund, were identified as being able to provide the green financing option to move the country towards becoming a green economy.
At the regional and international levels, the report suggested that organisations such as the Caribbean Development Bank – European Investment Bank, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility and the International Development Bank (Multi-lateral Fund of the IDB group), be considered as sources of income for green initiatives.
However, it emphasised that there was also a need for involvement from the private sector and civil society institutions. "Barbados is in the process of developing a Country Programme Strategy (CPS) for the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme…It is proposed that the green economy, given its national priority status, be formalised as the umbrella focus of the CPS," the report indicated.