Independent senator slams ‘costly’ climate change strategies

Independent Senator and real estate executive Andrew Mallalieu has called on the government to reconsider aspects of its climate change investment strategy, suggesting that some initiatives may prove more harmful than beneficial due to their substantial financial burden.

As the Upper Chamber of Parliament debated the Marine Transport Emissions Control Bill on Wednesday, Senator Mallalieu expressed support for the legislation, which seeks to regulate emissions from maritime sources and reduce fossil fuel consumption by ships. Then, he cautioned that the financial implications of such regulations could harm the economy.

“It is an honourable duty that our prime minister is doing in raising the awareness of the impacts of climate change on small island developing states like ourselves,” he said. “But we have to think very carefully about what is the cost of many of these regulations that we are putting on ourselves. We need to be realistic about what we can afford, and what difference it will make.”

The senator, the chief executive of real estate firm Terra Caribbean and a 30-plus-year motorsport veteran, argued that because Barbados’ overall contribution to global pollution remains negligible compared to larger nations the government should move with caution in allocating substantial funds to meet international green energy standards.

He declared: “The amount of pollution we generate is minuscule in comparison to our wealthy brothers and sisters in the industrial world. We need to choose carefully what we can do with the resources that we have. Not every mechanism is practical for us to implement, and we should not have to bear the price for all these mechanisms on our own.”

Senator Mallalieu highlighted the country’s photovoltaic initiatives as a key area of both praise and concern. While solar energy has provided many benefits, he argued that the lack of accessible and affordable battery storage has hindered further investment.

“Unfortunately, the lack of battery storage has now hamstrung us, and I continue to be concerned that the failures in the process between [the] FTC, Barbados Light and Power [and] intervenors is harming all Barbadians,” he said. “Our efforts in photovoltaic make really good sense for us as a country, it does reduce the carbon footprint, and it reduces the cost of imported fossil fuels into Barbados. So I do hope we get past that.”