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Farmers To Get Climate-Risk Management Training

February 3, 2017 Webmaster

BEGINNING FEBRUARY 7, the USAID-funded Jamaica Rural Economy and Ecosystems Adapting to Climate Change II (Ja REEACH II) project, in collaboration with the Meteorological Service of Jamaica and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority will host a series of agrometeorology farmers’ fora.

The fora are geared at equipping farmers and other stakeholders with climate-smart risk management strategies. The series will explore common terminologies used by weather experts in delivering the weather news, enabling farmers to interpret and use this information. The workshop will also feature presentations on climate outlook for the upcoming six months and how to prepare for any unexpected changes in the weather to reduce exposure of livelihoods.

“The farmers will also benefit from awareness sessions focused on the impact of climate change and variability on agri-business enterprises, the role of insurance products in the management of climate risks, and planning for climate risks at the farm or community level using the participatory integrated climate services for agriculture tool. This will be complemented by an interactive demonstration of the risk associated with disasters and early warning climate service (flooding or drought) by the MSJ,” Ja REEACH II said in a release to the media.

INSURANCE POLICY

GraceKennedy Insurance has partnered with the Ja REEACH II project to provide Livelihood Protection Policy coverage valued at $300,000 which will be presented to selected farmers during the series. The Livelihood Protection Policy offered by GK Insurance is a trigger-based insurance policy which is designed to help especially non-salary income earners to cope with severe impacts on their livelihood following extreme weather events (rain and wind).

This is the third staging of the agrometeorology fora which builds on the engagement of some 575 farmers, extension officers and other stakeholders who have participated.

The Ja REEACH II project is a four-year initiative funded by the USAID and implemented by ACDI/VOCA. Through a range of interventions, Ja REEACH II works with government, private sector, civil society and community- based organisations to increase awareness and application of practical actions that help Jamaicans to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Gleaner

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Holness Optimistic Ja Will Become Gas Hub For Caribbean

May 5, 2016 Webmaster

Holness Ricardo Makyn

Washington, DC:

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is optimistic that Jamaica will become the hub for gas in the Caribbean and promises that his government will be strategic in its efforts to diversify the country’s energy sector.

“Renewables will have to feature in a far greater way in our energy mix. The falling oil prices give us a window of opportunity to bring in new technology, to bring in new investors,” he said yesterday during an interview with Jamaican journalists at the US Caribbean Central American Energy Summit in Washington, DC. The summit was held at the Department of State.

“The emphasis (will be) on diversification in ensuring that we are the hub that will reduce our exposure to volatility,” he said.

Holness, along with other regional leaders, met with United States Vice President Joseph Biden yesterday morning for a Caribbean Heads of Delegation meeting. He said the exchange has given him some insight into how other countries in the region are using alternative energy for their electricity, water, and transportation sectors.

“I think we will have to look more closely at our transportation sector, particularly the JUTC (Jamaican Urban Transit Company), which are fairly heavy users of oil and heavy fuel, to see how best we can get energy efficiency from diversifying their fuel use,” he said.

BURDEN FOR JAMAICA

The prime minister noted that energy has been a burden for Jamaica for many years, but he believes that several initiatives implemented by Biden and US President Barack Obama over the years have contributed to finding solutions to the problem. Obama reinforced his administration’s commitment to assist the region with exploring clean-energy solutions when he launched the Task Force on US Caribbean and Central American Energy Security during his visit to Jamaica in April 2015. Just a few months prior to the launch of the task force, Biden hosted the first US Caribbean Central American Energy Summit.

The US has provided clean-energy finance for countries such as Jamaica through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the USAID. The US-owned BMR Energy is also currently building a 34-megawatt greenfield wind farm in St Elizabeth valued at US$90 million.

“What we have said at these seminars is that Jamaica is open for investments in the energy sector,” said Holness.

The prime minister said discussions with Biden went very well as they reviewed progress made in the local energy sector last year and discussed plans for this year. He noted that there are some imperatives that the Jamaican population would have to become aware of such as the strong global movement towards clean energy.

“What is clear is that there is great appreciation for what we have done as it relates to our regulations, making it attractive for investments in the energy sector to come to Jamaica,” he said.

nadine.wilson-harris@gleanerjm.com

The Gleaner

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Make Climate Change A Personal Issue – US Diplomat

December 18, 2015 Webmaster

Errol Paisley (third left) of Stony Hill, St Andrew, accepts from Joshua Polacheck, counsellor for Public Affairs at the United States (US) Embassy, the $150,000 reward for the community’s winning effort of collecting 1,250 pounds of PET bottles in less than a month during Operation Clean Sweep. Also sharing in the occasion are project director Stephen Newland (second left) and Dr Kwame Emmanuel, global change co-ordiantor, during Wednesday’s prize-giving ceremony at the US, Embassy, Liguanea, St Andrew.

Addressing the issue of global climate change in a meaningful way can begin with small actions which, together, will have a big impact on containing carbon emissions, according to Joshua Polacheck, counsellor for public affairs at the United States (US) Embassy in Jamaica.

“People don’t think about it, but when you take a plastic bottle and just chuck it into the landfill or into the countryside and it ends up incinerated, you are adding to all the other carbons and other greenhouse effects, but if you recycle it, you are actually helping, in your own small part, to keep the global climate within manageable levels,” he pointed out on Wednesday.

“People may think, ‘oh, this is just a small local thing’, a question of beautification and resource use (but), it’s actually part of that small step that each of us needs to take to change our behaviour to help combat global climate change,” the State Department official told the Operation Clean Sweep prize-giving ceremony at the US Embassy, Liguanea, St Andrew.

Polacheck told participants in the recently concluded pilot project, under which community members from Rae Town, Kingston, Stony Hill, St Andrew, and Gregory Park, St Catherine were trained in solid waste best practices, that they needed to make climate change a personal concern.

“We think that for all countries, especially regional leaders like Jamaica and other small island developing states like the rest of CARICOM, like the countries in the South Pacific, it should be a very personal issue. It’s also a very personal issue for the United States,” he disclosed.

While it may not be something that comes readily to mind, the extensive coastline of the United States’ mainland, as well as the location of offshore territories such as Hawaii, makes the country and its citizens very vulnerable to the fallout from climate change, Polacheck disclosed.

He explained that the state of Arizona, which has extensive desert terrain, has had one of the worst droughts in a century, due mainly to the recent increase in global average temperatures.

Reducing The Fallout

With the recent international agreement on reducing carbon emission struck at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21, in Paris, presenting an opportunity for the world at large, the United States of America, which has taken a leadership role, will be looking to ramp up its collaboration with Jamaica on containing and reducing the fallout from climate change, especially at the grass-roots level.

“So the efforts that we’re making globally are going be part of the efforts we are doing on a bilateral level locally, here with Jamaica,” said Polacheck.

Meanwhile, Stephen Newland, project director for the pilot phase of Operation Clean Sweep, commended members from three select communities for their success in putting to good use the training in solid-waste management.

Residents of Stony Hill, St Andrew, took the top prize of $150,000 for the winning effort of collecting 1,250 pounds of PET bottles in less than a month.

With an average of 33 eight-ounce bottles weighing a pound, and 3,300 bottles estimated at 100lb, the number of bottles collected in and around the community since November 13 was mind-boggling.

For their efforts, residents of Rae Town, Kingston, who logged just about 200 pounds of bottles less than the winners, received $50,000, with Gregory Park, St Catherine, being the other community.

Dr Kwame Emmanuel, USAID/COMET 11’s global change coordinator, pointed to the other significant benefits of plastic-bottle collection and recycling beyond the monetary gains.

“For COMET (Community Empowerment and Transfor-mation), Operation Clean Sweep facilitated another opportunity to bolster social cohesion through the implementation of an environmental activity. The project also provided the communities with a social entrepreneurship idea, which will help to tackle the solid waste management crisis. Moving forward, it is hoped that the management team not only takes the consideration of lessons learnt during this short pilot, but also integrates the other two Rs – reduce and reuse – into the project.”

The Gleaner

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MIT INVENTION TURNS SALT WATER INTO DRINKING WATER USING SOLAR POWER

August 24, 2015 Webmaster

From plants to people, every living thing on this planet needs water. But getting enough to survive, and survive comfortably, that can be a little tricky. Just look at the furor around California’s new water restrictions. If a state as wealthy as California is having to get creative in order to start saving water, you can bet that governments and municipalities with less money and clout are having to turn to even more inventive methods to get clean water without breaking the bank.

Luckily, some of the brightest minds in the world are on the case. USAID recently announced the winners of the Desal Prize, part of a competition to see who could create an affordable desalination solution for developing countries. The idea was to create a system that could remove salt from water and meet three criteria: it had to be cost-effective, environmentally sustainable, and energy efficient.

The winners of the $140,000* first prize were a group from MIT and Jain Irrigation Systems. The group came up with a method that uses solar panels to charge a bank of batteries. The batteries then power a system that removes salt from the water through electrodialysis. On the most basic level, that means that dissolved salt particles, which have a slight electric charge, are drawn out of the water when a small electrical current is applied. In addition to getting rid of salt (which makes water unusable for crops and for drinking), the team also applied UV light to disinfect some of the water as it passed through the system.

Using the sun instead of fossil fuels to power a desalination plant isn’t a totally new idea. Larger solar desalination plants are being seriously investigated in areas where water is becoming a scarce resource, including Chile and California. While proponents hope to eventually could provide water to large numbers of people, the technology is still expensive (though prices are dropping) and requires a lot of intricate technology.

In rural areas or developing countries, durability is key, and technology that requires constant upkeep won’t last long. The MIT/Jain team and their competitors tested their projects at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in New Mexico, where they had to run the system for 24 hours at a time, removing salt from 2,100 gallons of water each day. The next step is to test it in an even harsher environment, exposing it to everyday use with rural farmers in an area where USAID is active. If all goes well, the system could provide enough water to irrigate a small farm.

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