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SunPower Breaks World Record for Efficient Solar Panels

February 23, 2016 Webmaster

The more efficient the solar panel, the less space used.

Solar giant SunPower announced on Monday that it can now make a solar panel that can convert 22.8% of the sunlight that hits it into electricity. According to SunPower, that’s a new world record.

The efficiency of solar panels is an important metric to both solar companies and to its customers. When panels are more efficient it mean that rooftops can be covered in fewer efficient panels, which use less materials, but that can generate the same amount of energy as more less-efficient panels.

SunPower says its highly efficient panels can generate 70% more energy in the same space over the first 25 years, compared to less efficient panels. Many solar panels are somewhere between 15% and 18% efficient. SunPower and others have been working to boost the efficiency of panels using material science and optics tech innovations.

Solar companies are in a battle to boost the efficiency of their panels and tout new records. SunPower SPWR -5.85% says its 22.8% solar panel was verified by the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Last year, SolarCity claimed that it had started making its own highly efficient panels, with an efficiency that “exceeded 22%,” verified by the Renewable Energy Test Center (which isn’t one of the more commonly used verification labs). But SolarCity’s SCTY -5.92% solar panels were also planned to be made in small volumes on a pilot solar panel manufacturing line in Fremont, Calif.

Creating solar panel efficiency breakthroughs in the lab or on a small scale, is far easier than making those efficient panels in very large volumes. But SunPower says the average efficiency of its solar cells (which make up panels) at the end of last year was close to 23%.

SunPower’s stock was up over 3% in morning trading to $21.84. Oil giant Total owns 66% of the Richmond, Calif.-based SunPower.

Last week SunPower announced fourth quarter and year 2015 earnings. SunPower says it generated $1.58 billion in revenue in 2015, with an annual loss of $299.44 million. The company was profitable on an annual basis in 2014 and 2013.

Check out Fortune’s recent interview with SunPower CEO Tom Werner.

Fortune.com

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Traditional Energy Industry Declares War on Solar Energy

February 18, 2016 Webmaster

Solar’s threat to the utility industry is deeper than not having to purchase electricity

Now that solar power is reaching prime time, the fossil fuel industry is doing all that it can to stop its growth.

For many years solar was on the periphery, installed by early adopters and helped along by government subsidy. But over the last several years, solar has emphatically become mainstream. It is still growing from a low base, but it is now one of the most preferred sources of new electricity generation. The cost of residential solar have been cut in half since 2010, and utility-scale solar has achieved even greater cost declines.

In 2015, the U.S. saw 16 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity installed, which accounted for two-thirds of the total. Solar alone accounted for about one-third of new capacity last year. Natural gas only captured 25 percent of the newly installed capacity despite several years of incredibly low prices. The banner year for clean energy occurred while 11 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity came offline as old plants were retired amid rising costs and stricter environmental regulation. The clean energy transition is very much underway.

TIME

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Paulwell says net billing to resume, but solar energy providers still in limbo

February 1, 2016 Webmaster

Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell

ALMOST a year after net billing was suspended, there are indications that the programme is to resume, although Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell is yet to set a timeline.

He said recommendations have been made to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to resume processing licences. But, before that can happen, the Electricity Lighting Act must be amended and the Jamaica Solar Energy Association (SEA) raised concerns that nothing has been done to have the legislation amended.

At Wednesday’s national conference for the development of an energy services company industry in Jamaica, Paulwell said that the Government is committed to reopening net billing.

He, however, explained that while the law names the Energy Sector Enterprise Team (ESET) as the body responsible for regulating new generation capacity, it was felt that it (net billing) is not appropriately placed at ESET, and that the OUR is expected to resume processing net billing licences.

So far, more than 300 licences have been issued, but solar energy providers have not been able to interconnect to the JPS grid since May of last year.

David Barrett, president of SEA, says the association’s membership is still in a state of confusion.

“It’s static now (the sector) because people have no entity to get a licence from, they don’t know who to go to. Some persons have gone to the OUR or the JPS (Jamaica Public Service company) but they can’t do it because of the obvious reasons,” he told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday.

Over the months, entrepreneurs in the solar energy sector have complained bitterly of suffering millions in losses after the JPS stopped net billing to carry out an assessment of the pilot. The review was completed by the United States’ National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the report made public in June, but all grid interconnection for new net billing projects islandwide have still remained on hold.

Solar energy providers say the prolonged suspension has dealt their outfits a serious blow, arguing, too, that the JPS has too much power over the arrangement and that the Government needs to act decisively on the issue.

Barrett said the members are neither pleased with the pace of the process nor the new conditions that are being established.

“What has been decided is that the cap is to be five megawatts instead of 11 as it would have been in the previous phase, and that the cap for the individual locations will remain as they are. The association is not too happy about that because we feel that there is easy opportunity to increase potential for renewables in Jamaica without disturbing the grid in any way,” he told the Observer earlier this month.

Additionally, Barrett expressed disappointment that the association had not been invited to the table when the new cap was being set. “So we don’t have the information that fed into the decision-making process,” he stated.

Net billing permits JPS customers, who own renewable energy generators, to produce electricity for personal use and to sell excess energy to the light and power monopoly at wholesale prices, which are set by the OUR.

Jamaica Observer

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Window Tinting, Solar Panels Cut NCB Energy Bill 20%

January 18, 2016 Webmaster

NCB Group headquarters, The Atrium, at Trafalgar Road, New Kingston. The banking group’s energy initatives have cuts its electricity bill by 20 per cent across its network.

National Commercial Bank Jamaica (NCB) has cut its energy consumption by 20 per cent over the past four years and is projecting half-billion dollars of new savings over the next four.

By tinting its windows, changing its light and air-conditioning units, and installing some solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, the bank hopes to cut its electricity bill by another eight per cent in 2016.

If it achieves its latest goal, NCB would spend $140 million less on energy this year than it would if it had not implemented any of the energy-saving initiatives that started in 2011.

Back then, the financial institution forked out over $600 million to keep the lights on. Air conditioning accounted for more than 60 per cent of the energy use while lighting accounted for another 20 per cent, so it was decided that light-emitting diode (LED) lights would be installed across its locations, while high efficiency air-condition units and solar systems have been put in place at select sites, such as NCB’s head office on Trafalgar Road.

Reflective tinting on windows, roof insulation, and automated light controls have also helped protect the bank’s buildings from heat infiltration and have enhanced the energy-saving process.

This year, NCB plans to “continue implementing projects to install high-efficiency air-conditioning systems at relevant locations and increase the use of LED and PV panels,” according to the latest annual report.

So far, it has spent $500 million to implement various energy-reduction initiatives.

“We have an energy portfolio that is continuously being assessed, and our expenditure is guided by our environmental policy and, therefore, is subject to variations,” said NCB in reply to Sunday Business queries.

With the energy-saving expenditure, the banking group has so far avoided some $300 million in energy cost over the past four years, and expects to save another $500 million over the next four, based on current energy rates.

NCB can also boast a positive contribution to the environment. By reducing its energy consumption by 2.7 million kilowatt-hours – which is equivalent to the electricity used by 1,350 homes in Jamaica – it has reduced its footprint by approximately 1,800 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. That’s the equivalent of the emissions given off by a plane making 25 round trips to and from New York, or by 100 cars driving from Kingston to Mandeville and back every day for a year.

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What Just Happened in Solar Is a Bigger Deal Than Oil Exports

December 21, 2015 Webmaster

The clean-energy boom is about to be transformed. In a surprise move, U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind for another five years. This will give an unprecedented boost to the industry and change the course of deployment in the U.S.

The extension will add an extra 20 gigawatts of solar power—more than every panel ever installed in the U.S. prior to 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The U.S. was already one of the world’s biggest clean-energy investors. This deal is like adding another America of solar power into the mix.

The wind credit will contribute another 19 gigawatts over five years. Combined, the extensions will spur more than $73 billion of investment and supply enough electricity to power 8 million U.S. homes, according to BNEF.

“This is massive,” said Ethan Zindler, head of U.S. policy analysis at BNEF. In the short term, the deal will speed up the shift from fossil fuels more than the global climate deal struck this month in Paris and more than Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan that regulates coal plants, Zindler said.

Data Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance

This is exactly the sort of bridge the industry needed. The costs of installing wind and solar power have dropped precipitously—by more than 90 percent since the original tax credits took effect—but in most places coal and natural gas are still cheaper than unsubsidized renewables. By the time the new tax credit expires, solar and wind will be the cheapest forms of new electricity in many states across the U.S.

The tax credits, valued at about $25 billion over five years, will drive $38 billion of investment in solar and $35 billion in wind through 2021, according to BNEF. The scale of the new projects will help push costs down further and will stimulate new investment that lasts beyond the extension of the credits.

Few people in the industry expected a five-year extension. Stocks soared. SolarCity, the biggest rooftop installer, surged 34 percent yesterday. SunEdison, the largest renewable-energy developer, climbed 25 percent, and panelmaker SunPower increased 14 percent.

Congress is expected to vote by the end of this week on the tax credits as part of a broader budget deal that also lifts the 40-year-old ban on U.S. oil exports. Oil producers have lobbied for years to lift the ban, but it isn’t likely to significantly affect either consumption of oil or deployment of renewables. Leaders from both parties reached an agreement on the bill late Tuesday.

The 30 percent solar tax credit was set to expire next year and will now extend through 2019 before tapering to 10 percent in 2022. The wind credit had expired at the end of 2014, and the extension will be retroactively applied from the start of 2015 through 2019, declining in value each year.

Wind power has had an especially tumultuous relationship with U.S. lawmakers, who have kept the industry’s credits alive through a disruptive ping-pong game of short-term extensions every year or two. “You open manufacturing plants and then you close them. And then you open them and you close them,” BNEF’s Zindler said. “It’s economically inefficient. This will give them a good five-year line of sight on what the market will look like, and that’s really important.”

Bloomberg

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New Climate Deal A Signal To Private Sector

December 16, 2015 Webmaster

Khan … I would say to the private sector, look at investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The new global climate deal, reached after two weeks of intense negotiations, is a signal to the private sector, local and international, of the need to reassess current investment flows.

Jamaican negotiator Dr Orville Grey said the private sector will be critical, given the stated goal of the new deal of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 28C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.58C above pre-industrial levels, recognising that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.

“The private sector will at some point have to take the lead because the technologies that are likely to take us to carbon neutrality will likely come from the private sector and not the public sector, at least as it relates to technology,” Grey, coordinator for adaptation for the Alliance of Small Island States during the negotiations, told The Gleaner.

If the world is to meet the ‘well-below-two’ target, it will require a significant shift in the current high levels of consumption of fossil fuels, including coal and oil, towards renewables such as solar and wind.

Colonel Oral Khan, chief technical director in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change and himself a member of the Jamaica delegation to the talks, was in full agreement.

“The private sector is encouraged under this agreement to support the mobilisation of finance to support adaptation and mitigation,” he said.

On Jamaica’s private sector, Khan said: “The State has submitted its intended nationally determined contribution commitment to [reducing greenhouse gas emissions] to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Secretariat. Our commitment is consistent with the goal of our National Energy Policy. I would say to the private sector, look at investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency. In time, I hope that we will see more entities entering into public-private partnerships.”

A Historic Turning Point

Neither Grey nor Khan is alone in their thinking; international leaders in business have echoed their sentiments.

“The business case for eliminating greenhouse gases by 2050 is irrefutable. Indeed, solving climate change presents the greatest economic and social development opportunity of our time,” said Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, in a release to the media on Saturday.

“The new climate agreement is a historic turning point. Now business can and must innovate to lead the transition to a clean economy. Together, it is our duty as human beings, responsible citizens and business leaders to protect the environment. A transition to a clean and green economy will lift millions out of poverty, and ensure the planet’s health for generations to come,” he added.

Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, mirrored his comments.

“This is truly a turning point in human history. We now have the chance to advance the well-being of people everywhere, while creating millions of new jobs and ending our reliance on fossil fuels,” she said in the same release.

“This will help us build a safer, more peaceful world for all. This is exactly what business needs in order to thrive in the long run,” added Huffington.

The Gleaner

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16 win UN ClimateSolutions Award

December 11, 2015 Webmaster

A solar panel on a thatch roof in Sub-saharan Africa is part of the Azuri PayGo Energy project, which provides eight hours of emission-free lighting each day and enough power to charge cellphones. Users pay a one-time installation fee and top-up as their needs demand.

PARIS, France (UNFCCC) – Sixteen game-changing initiatives from around the world were honoured as winners of a prestigious United Nations climate change award at a special ceremony at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, on yesterday evening.

“These ‘Lighthouse Activities’ shine a light on the groundswell of climate action around the world,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a keynote address. “As the world moves toward a future built on low-emissions sustainable development, these bold ideas can inspire leaders to be more ambitious in their own policies and actions.”

The Momentum for Change initiative is spearheaded by the UN Climate Change Secretariat to shine a light on some of the most innovative, scalable and replicable examples of what people are doing to address climate change. This year’s winning activities range from a seriously cool smartphone that puts social values first, to an initiative that is enabling 40 Latin American cities to take concrete climate action.

“I am honoured to celebrate the leadership shown by the people, organisations, companies, and governments recognised as winners of the 2015 Momentum for Change Awards tonight,” UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said.

“By showcasing these remarkable solutions and the people behind them we can strengthen efforts that must not only start with an agreement here in Paris, but must continue to build, as we accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon, highly resilient development path,” she said.

To help celebrate and recognise the achievements of the 2015 Lighthouse Activities, attendees at the gala event were treated to powerful photos, inspirational videos and a lively musical performance by Sean Paul.

M Sanjayan, a conservation scientist, writer and Emmy-nominated television news contributor, introduced Conservation International’s newest video in its critically acclaimed Nature for Speaking series, titled Home. Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse CEO and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, served as the evening’s master of ceremonies.

“Modern clean technologies have transformed the expensive problem of climate change into a profitable opportunity,” said Dr Piccard. “A global economy that is powered by renewable energy, implements energy efficient and minimises waste will not only tackle climate change, but will also generate health, job creation and profit in the communities where they take place.”

Each of the 16 winning activities touches on one of Momentum for Change’s four focus areas: Urban Poor, Women for Results, Financing for Climate Friendly Investment, and ICT Solutions. All 16 were showcased at a series of special events during the UN Climate Change Conference.

They are:

Urban Poor

•E-waste: From Toxic to Green, India: Creating jobs to keep e-waste out of landfills

•Solvatten Solar Safe Water Heater — Kenya: Reducing emissions while securing access to safe drinking water

•Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative | Latin America & the Caribbean: Supporting sustainable growth in emerging cities

Women for Results

•Fostering Cleaner Production — Colombia: Reducing emissions in manufacturing

•Harvesting Geothermal Energy — El Salvador: Generating income with geothermal waste-heat

•Planting Trees to Save the Mangrove — Guinea: Establishing women-led groups that protect forests and generate income

•SELF’s Solar Market Gardens — Benin: Empowering women farmers through solar drip irrigation

Financing for Climate Friendly Investment

•Azuri PayGo Energy — Africa: Innovating pay-as-you-go energy systems for rural homes

•Deforestation-free Cocoa — Peru: Using a carbon-asset-backed loan to protect forests and produce cocoa

•Microsoft Global Carbon Fee — Global: Transforming corporate culture by putting a price on carbon

ICT Solutions

•ChargePoint Electric Vehicle Charging Corridors — United States of America: Building a network of electric vehicle express charging stations

•Enabling Farmers to Adapt to Climate Change — Uganda: Using ICT solutions to build resilience

•Fairphone — The Netherlands: Producing a phone that improves lives and the environment

•Lifelink Water Solutions — Kenya and Uganda: Using ICT tools to provide safe, sustainable and affordable water

•Mapping Exposure to Sea Level Rise — Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea: Preparing for risk with online spatial tools

•Mobisol Smart Solar Homes — Rwanda and Tanzania: Powering homes with solar energy

The 2015 Lighthouse Activities were selected by an international advisory panel as part of the secretariat’s Momentum for Change initiative, which is implemented with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, and operates in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative.

Jamaica Observer

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Coalition urges action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

Members of the Jamaican delegation to COP21 at the Wider Caribbean Pavilion (from left) Ambassador Sheila Sealy Monteith, under secretary for the Multilateral Affairs Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Vilma McNeish, ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union; Senator Arnold J Nicholson, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade; Dr Orville Grey, senior technical officer in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change; and Jeffrey Spooner, head of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica.

PARIS, France — An unprecedented coalition of close to 40 governments, hundreds of businesses and influential international organisations have called for accelerated action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, a move that would help bridge the gap to keep global temperature rise below 2°C and perhaps close to the 1.5°C for which Caricom and other Small Island Developing States are advocating.

On the opening day of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) last week, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key formally presented the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on behalf of the Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group and other supporters of the communiqué.

The communiqué calls on the international community to increase efforts to phase out perverse subsidies to fossil fuels by promoting policy transparency, ambitious reform and targeted support for the poorest.

Governments spend over $500 billion of public resources a year to keep domestic prices for oil, gas and coal artificially low. Removing fossil fuel subsidies would reduce greenhouse gas emission by 10 per cent by 2050. It would also free up resources to invest in social and physical capital like education, healthcare and infrastructure, while levelling the playing field for renewable energy.

“Fossil fuel subsidy reform is the missing piece of the climate change puzzle,” Prime Minister Key said. “It’s estimated that more than a third of global carbon emissions, between 1980 and 2010, were driven by fossil fuel subsidies. Their elimination would represent one-seventh of the effort needed to achieve our target of ensuring global temperatures do not rise by more than 2°C. As with any subsidy reform, change will take courage and strong political will, but with oil prices at record lows and the global focus on a low carbon future, the timing for this reform has never been better.”

In accepting the communiqué, Figueres said: “These subsidies contribute to the inefficient use of fossil fuels, undermine the development of energy efficient technologies, act as a drag on clean, green energy deployment and in many developing countries do little to assist the poorest of the poor in the first place.

“The huge sums involved globally could be better spent on schools, health care, renewable energies and building resilient societies. The current, very low oil prices are a good opportunity to really get going on this issue.”

Chair of The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) and former president of Alstom Power, Philippe Joubert, also spoke last Monday.

“The CLG’s long-standing efforts to put a price on carbon, including most recently working with the World Bank through the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, will soon deliver results. It doesn’t make sense that, at the same time, governments artificially deflate the cost of coal, oil and gas, the primary cause of GHG emissions. Fossil fuel subsidies must be ended to stop this contradiction and enhance a real transition to low carbon energy,” he said.

For the OECD’s part, Secretary-General Angel Gurría commented that countries need to demonstrate their seriousness about combating climate change with concrete actions and policies.

“Reforming harmful fossil-fuel support is a good place to start,” Gurría stressed.

Close to 40 countries have endorsed the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué, including Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Samoa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, and Uruguay.

The communiqué is supported by The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group (23 global companies employing two million people worldwide with combined revenues exceeding US$170 billion) and other business organisations working with thousands of corporations and investors, including The B Team, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the We Mean Business coalition.

The communiqué has also been endorsed by influential international organisations, including the International Energy Agency, the OECD and the World Bank.

Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies can accelerate the economic shift needed to tackle climate change and remove one of the obstacles to delivering the low-carbon future for which COP21 is aiming.

“History will prove fossil fuel to be a dead end,” Stefan Löfven, prime minister of Sweden, said. “Sweden will be amongst the first fossil-free welfare nations of the world. And eliminating fossil fuel subsidies is an important step on this path.”

Hakima El Haite, Morocco’s environment minister and candidate for the presidency of COP22, added: “Not only do fossil fuel subsidies put a strain on government coffers but they also don’t help the poorest of society.”

COP21 began on November 30 and will run until Friday, December 11.

Jamaica Observer

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1.5 Degrees Celsius Remains In Play At Paris Climate Talks

December 7, 2015 Webmaster

After a week of deliberations at the United Nations climate talks in Paris, 1.5 degrees Celsius as a possible target for holding the increase in global temperatures – crucial for islands like Jamaica and others of the Caribbean – remains in play.

“Parties hereby establish the global goal of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change, [in accordance with the objective, principles and provisions of the Convention, including common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,] with a view to [contributing to sustainable development] [and] [ensuring adaptation in the context of the goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature [below 2 degC][below [2 or] 1.5 degC] referred to in Article 2],” reads a section of the draft text on outcomes from the deliberations.

However, as evidenced by the brackets, nothing is settled as country heads and ministers come in this week to take over the negotiations from their technical experts.

Still, Caribbean islands, as others forming the Alliance of Small Island States, would have been pleased with the retention of the 1.5 target as an option – one that will necessitate significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if it is to be realised.

Only two weeks ago, head of the CARICOM Task Force on Climate Change Dr James Fletcher reinforced how critical the target is.

“The conversation has been about 28 Celsius, and we have said that two degrees cannot work for us.

“With 28 Celsius, we will have major ecosystem collapse in many of our countries,” said Fletcher, who is also St Lucia’s minister of sustainable development, energy, science, and technology.

“You will have extinction of some of the biodiversity that is so rich – both marine and terrestrial biodiversity – that makes us who we are. Two degrees Celsius will unleash major diseases on us, will cause our coastal defences to be majorly challenged,” he added.

He was speaking on November 26 at the announcement of the winner of that island’s ‘Media Climate Change Challenge’, which was won by journalist Alison Kentish of Helen Television System.

Challenges Negotiations

Meanwhile, the past week of negotiations has not been without challenges.

“OPEC countries Saudi Arabia and Venezuela stood out for their extensive efforts to derail the process in the first week, including blocking the vital symbol of human rights and ambition in the agreement, the 1.5 degree goal, as well as throwing up roadblocks around the definition of terms such as decarbonisation, carbon neutrality, and zero carbon,” read a release from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a United Kingdom-based non-profit, which has been following the progress of the talks.

“Also, despite a week of big announcements on renewables from Bill Gates, India’s Solar Alliance, Google, and more, Saudi Arabia have also questioned 100 per cent renewables as being a ‘slogan’ rather than as means to achieving the objectives of the conference,” it added.

Alongside the negotiations has been the ongoing “1.5 To Stay Alive” campaign launched in October in the Caribbean. It is the collaborative efforts of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, Panos Caribbean, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the Regional Council of Martinique.

The goal of the campaign is to bolster the Caribbean negotiating positions, including its effort towards securing the 1.58 Celsius target, given current climate impacts being experienced in the region.

These include sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and warmer days and nights.

The campaign, which has been gaining momentum, has so far seen ‘the launch of its Facebook page (www.1point5. info) and Twitter account (@1point5OK)

The Gleaner

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Pushing the Caribbean agenda in Paris

December 1, 2015 Webmaster

St Kitts-Nevis PM makes impassioned plea at climate change conference

PARIS, France (CMC) – St Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris has called on the international community to “negotiate and agree a legally-binding agreement with ambitious emission reduction targets”.

Addressing the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Harris reiterated the seriousness and urgency of the threat posed by climate change and the need for an ambitious agreement to be reached during the two week conference.

“My delegation calls on all parties here to negotiate and agree a legally-binding agreement with ambitious emission reduction targets. St Kitts and Nevis recommends that all parties subscribe to at least five-year commitment cycles with robust ex-ante review and ex-poste assessment processes.

“We also hope that developed country parties and other parties in a position to do so, would be encouraged to provide support to vulnerable countries, particularly to Small Island Developing States (SIDS).”

He told the conference which is being attended by more than 100 world leaders that his twin island Federation, like other SIDS “has been undergoing many climate related changes; namely sea level rise, extreme weather events, prolonged and severe droughts, and disruption to our reefs, coastlines and agriculture”

Harris said that the dangers of climate change are real and present and that the threat is also existential. He said greenhouse gas emissions from small island states like St Kitts and Nevis are negligible “yet our small island states continue to be adversely and disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change.

“Nonetheless, as responsible global citizens, we in St Kitts and Nevis are already acting locally to reduce our national carbon footprint even further. The pursuit of renewable energy solutions is now a critical and integral component of our national sustainable development strategy to transform St. Kitts and Nevis into a fully environmentally sustainable small island state.”

Harris said that hi new administration “is incentivizing behavioural changes through the facilitation of duty free concessions on renewable energy technologies.

“We are building strategic partnerships with countries and the private sector to develop geothermal, solar and wind energy solutions. Currently, we have solar farms operating on both St. Kitts and Nevis and are also exploring the potential geothermal capacity on the islands. These renewables will have a significant impact on our energy consumption patterns and reliance on fossil fuels.”

Jamaica Observer

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