Marks calls for industry to help drive green economy

Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States Audrey Marks has charged that industry players have a fundamental role to play in driving the green economy and charting the way towards a carbon-neutral and sustainable future.

“Enhanced climate action is necessary both to address the climate crisis and to promote economic opportunity, which includes creating good, high-quality jobs in areas such as renewable energy deployment, electric vehicle manufacturing, methane abatement, and building retrofits,” Marks said while addressing a roundtable discussion on “Greening Latin America and the Caribbean” put on by the American Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

She pointed out that at the Leader's Summit hosted by US President Joe Biden last month, both he and the US Climate envoy John Kerry stressed the importance of partnership with industry leaders.

“It is our view that for this to work, government must formulate the policies and create the enabling environment, but industry must lead the development and implementation of the revolution. That's where organisations like the American Chamber of Commerce have a critical role to play.

“As the largest business federation in the US, representing more than three million businesses, you are uniquely poised to spur this movement. We applaud you on your leadership thus far and hope it will inspire other industry players.”

Marks lauded the efforts of the US and other countries like Japan, Canada, India, South Africa, Russia, South Korea, China, the United Kingdom as well as the European Union for committing to drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

She noted that said Jamaica, like all Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and many developing countries, remained committed to advancing climate action and is determined to build stronger, better, and greener.

“In spite of the challenges presented by the pandemic and the significant reduction in our earnings, Jamaica has raised ambition on mitigation with a significant energy target while expanding the scope to include land use and forestry. For us, the absolute level of ambition in our enhanced NDC [Nationally Determined Contributions]is 60% higher than our first,” she said.

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