Symmonds in high-wattage attack on renewable energy ‘silence’

Senior Minister Kerrie Symmonds has blasted a “conspiracy of silence” around support for Barbados’ renewable energy plans.

In tough-worded remarks on the floor of the House of Assembly, he slammed the “glib” manner in which people with influence here are approaching matters regarding humanity’s continued safe existence.

He further lashed out at the “obstruction to progress” which exists in Barbados along with the “studious dedication” not to support the government’s efforts at renewable energy.

The St James Central MP also served some verbal blows on those whose navel strings are buried on the island, for not lending support and a voice to national efforts.

“It’s a curious thing,” he told fellow parliamentarians. “One would expect a certain degree of loyalty to the country of your birth.”

Speaking on the second reading of the Utilities Regulation (Amendment) Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, Symmonds, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, also chided opposition politicians and the media for a lack of commitment to furthering the energy cause as Barbados confronts the open flood gates in attempting to eliminate the gridlock in energy storage. Journalists have a part to play in lifting the country’s gaze in the renewable energy battle, he declared.

While applauding his government’s attempts to unleash Barbados’ renewable energy potential, Symmonds said the country must be ready since global demand for renewable energy resources could increase overnight.

Coming out of last week’s COP28 global climate summit, there is an understanding that the switch from fossil fuel is imminent, an issue which Barbados has been debating for a long time, he declared.

“For the first time last week, there’s been a global understanding that there is to be a transition away from the use of fossil fuels and a tripling of renewable energy investment around the world,” Symmonds said.

“We have, as a government, sent signals repeatedly to this country and to stakeholders within the electricity sector and we have urged that heed be paid because this moment had to come and that the advantage that little Barbados had prior to this moment was a ‘first-mover advantage’.”

He explained that in an ocean of demand for things such as inverters, condensers, transformers and batteries for solar photovoltaic power, Barbados as a small island becomes irrelevant owing to its relatively small-scale buying power.

Now that the international community has signed on to the COP28 agreement to phase out fossil fuels, Symmonds said, this country will be forced to travel at “break-neck speed” as the world picks up pace to go green.

He suggested that the modernisation of the grid and purchase of transformers and other critical implements are a private sector role and not one for the government. This is why, he added, that having not “girded our loins”, the systems must now be put in place and relationships cultivated to confront the international “floodgates” as the rush for investment in a high-demand market picks up speed.

“If we don’t take the action we are taking today, we would be positioned exactly where we were in the dark days of the pandemic when we wanted so few vaccines that the suppliers said, ‘you are too small to matter,” the minister said.

Symmonds said that just as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic to access vaccines, Barbados is building partnerships “so that we can unleash the renewable energy potential”.

If we are not ready for the expansion in the world market, he warned, Barbados will face “severe peril and danger”.
(SP)