Access to modern technologies must be available to all

The average Barbadian must continue to have a seat in the lucrative green energy economy.

This was the strong message from Minister of Energy and Business Development Kerrie Symmonds to the House of Assembly, during Tuesday’s debate on the new Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) Plan 2022.

Symmonds contended that though there have been some outspoken critics of government’s process surrounding photovoltaic application for both lower income earners and individuals with more capital, he insisted that the current administration remains steadfast in its commitment to democratise the current energy sector, and create more opportunities for everyday Barbadians to benefit from these modern technologies.

“It did not happen in Mexico, it has not happened in Costa Rica, it has not happened in Columbia, it has not happened in Canada, it has not happened in the United States of America… but it has happened in Barbados. It has happened because of a philosophical commitment to make sure that the energy opportunity is democratised as we hold that up to the world to say, that while we rile and raise our voices against climate change, and while we are the first to stand in the breach and say that there must be adaptation, it has to be a process in which the economic benefit does not exclude the overwhelming majority of the people of the country.”

He further stated, that though members of the Democratic Labour Party, and in particular its President Dr Ronnie Yearwood, may seek to be critical of the legislation governing applications for fast tracking renewable energy applications within the sector, it was the current administration that created the regulations and guidelines for renewable energy in Barbados, where no policy existed before.

“This concept of renewable energy is not something that we own. We put a policy around it where none existed. We put a regulatory framework [and] draft legislation because of the fact that there were none… This was a free-for-all. What made it even more offensive and more troublesome, was that the minister responsible for energy at the time was the Prime Minister of Barbados.

“What we have had to do is rebuild this from scratch,” he explained.

The energy minister dismissed the notion that Government placing a fast-track process in place for applications for smaller renewable energy installations of one to five megawatts was a negative move. He pointed out that when a similar step was made for larger installations over five megawatts, there were no objections.

“When the fast-track was put in place for them, not a voice was raised from the Democratic Labour Party of today to say that was a bad thing. But as you put a fast-track mechanism in place for working-class people with a darker colour to their skin, this strange human being who himself has come out of the bowels of rural Barbados, born to rural Barbados working-class folk, but who somehow has turned his back and set his face like flint against the wellbeing of those same people who helped him climb the rungs of the ladder that he now stands upon…he has a problem.” (SB)