EDITORIAL - Paying lip service to energy conservation

With more Jamaican consumers struggling to meet high electricity bills and buy expensive petrol, we feel that more of the country's attention should be focused on long-term solutions to reduce energy consumption and increase renewable sources of energy.

For a long time we have paid lip service to the idea of becoming more energy efficient and aware. For example, targets set by Central Government to slash energy usage were never met and there were no sanctions.

The ill-fated Cuban light bulb project will be remembered more for the lingering stench of corruption instead of the message it was meant to deliver - that of promoting energy-efficient practices and the usage of energy-efficient products in the home.

Public organisations like the police and the army that command huge motor vehicle fleets, as well as the Jamaica Urban Transit Company, have never demonstrated to the country the steps they are taking, if any, to become more energy-efficient. In other words, we are not convinced that enough is being done to reduce our oil bill which will climb to US$2 billion this year.

Just who should drive this initiative, though? The consumer? The Government? The OUR? JPS? Private sector? NGOs?

A young energetic prime minister like Andrew Holness, along with his energy-efficiency-minded colleagues in Parliament, could conceivably drive a national campaign that seeks to implement systemic changes to reduce energy consumption and lessen our dependency on imported fuel.

One may argue, however, that Mr Holness and his colleagues are at this time focused on a campaign of a different sort, and that there is little time or imagination on how best to pursue energy efficiency for the nation's environmental health.

Gas guzzlers still popular

Despite talk of wanting to reduce the cost of government, we see scores of gas-guzzling SUVs in the Government's fleet, including those assigned to various ministers, which is one signal that the country is nowhere near recognising that energy efficiency is an important component in devising a comprehensive and innovative strategy to take our economy forward.

Previous half-hearted public awareness campaigns appear to have failed spectacularly, for they have had little effect on policymakers, the private sector and consumers.

For any energy-efficiency campaign to have the desired effect strong partnerships must be created, and that is why we wish to draw attention to the initiative of Capital and Credit Financial Group, which has designed a way to stimulate investment in renewable-energy sources. The bank's renewable-energy loan enables the borrower to retrofit his home by installing solar panels, harnessing wind power or other alternative energy, so he can be less reliant on the public electricity grid.

Deputy group president Christopher Martin gave details of the programme, which will see the bank issuing loans of between $100,000 and $5 million at an interest rate of 9.5 per cent and with loan terms of up to 10 years, and calling for fewer pre-conditions for customers.

Martin is reported as saying: "If we could get thousands of customers utilising the sunshine which is natural and abundant in Jamaica to generate electricity, and to use that as the mechanism to get hot water, for example, then we'd see a significant reduction in electricity bills and also a reduction in our import bill."

Even affluent societies which can pay for oil are now giving serious thought to renewable sources of energy. It is a long haul to wean a nation off its oil dependency. We have only scratched the surface of our potential in solar and wind power and we need to assign energy conservation national priority.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.