Energy icon to have talks with foreign investor about carbon tax over Christmas

Industrialist Ralph Bizzy Williams, one of the country’s leading renewable energy advocates, declared Wednesday that over the Christmas holidays, he will be discussing with a foreign investor how to introduce a tax on carbon emissions.

He would not identify the investor but indicated that he is known to have pumped millions of dollars into Barbados.

The entrepreneur sought to build a case for the use of renewable energy as a crucial element of survival, and said he was looking forward to discussions with the investor, “when, if you wish, we can work out the details of how to implement this basic idea worldwide”.

The retired executive chairman and founder of Williams Industries is calling for a collective approach to introducing the tax and using the money generated to buy carbon credits from communities that take steps to reduce their carbon emissions.

“Then people will reduce their emissions by investing in storage, and global warming will be contained so the planet will continue to be habitable by humans,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“In my view, this is the bedrock principle that, if implemented worldwide, will enable human habitation of Earth to continue. The sun’s energy that reaches Earth alone is multiples more than the total amount of energy needed to power all human energy needs on Earth. So why not agree on a worldwide carbon tax and use the money generated to create a market for carbon credits to save us from extinction?” the advocate of renewable energy queried.

Acknowledging that Earth is getting hotter, Williams warned people against continued polluting and “making laughing sport of this reality” while believing that nothing should be allowed to reduce “our own comfort and luxury lifestyle”.

The business mogul also warned that if concerted action is not taken to mitigate against global warming, human life “as we know it” will cease to exist on Earth.

“And our planet, having rid itself of us who caused it to overheat, will continue happily orbiting the Sun for another billion or so years while other more environmentally conscious species emerge,” he contended.

“The bottom line is that the storage of electricity is expensive, but it is absolutely essential for Planet Earth to be powered by intermittent renewable sources of energy that are required to eliminate pollution which is causing global warming.”

Sharing a lifetime observation, the 81-year-old mogul said people would do what is required of them if they are rewarded, and stop doing what one doesn’t want them to do if they are punished.

“It’s the age-old carrot and stick method,” he quipped.

Williams expressed the need for world leaders to think of global warming and carbon emissions in the same vein.

He cautioned that failure to act globally to reduce carbon emissions will eventually lead to the same human extinction as all-out nuclear war.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb