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BBC Expresses Interest in St. Lucia's Renewable Energy Efforts

Contact: John Emmanuel

Tuesday, October 29, 2002 - Government’s intention to make St. Lucia a demonstration country in terms of sustainable energy use has again placed the island in the international spotlight. The latest agency to express interest in St. Lucia’s efforts in that regard is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).The BBC has chosen St. Lucia and Iceland to be featured in a 25 minute radio documentary dubbed “Kicking the Carbon Habit”.

One the weekend BBC reporter Richard Black wrapped up his four-day tour of duty on island, where he held dialogue with key stakeholders in the energy sector. Judith Ephraim - Sustainable Development and Environment Officer in the Minister of Physical Development, Environment and Housing, says St. Lucia has made steady progress over the years in its intention towards attaining sustainable energy. According to Ephraim, last year the Cabinet of Ministers approved a Sustainable Energy Plan for St. Lucia.

The plan she says is basically a management strategy for the local energy sector and focuses on the exploitation of indigenous sources of renewable energy as well as energy conservation and efficiency. “Energy is critical to development, both socio-economic and physical development and St. Lucia has taken this challenge towards achieving sustainable energy. Right now we are working on an energy policy which will create the regulatory and policy framework for implementing the energy plan. It will focus on issues like reliability, security, universal availability and environmental protection. This is seen as a milestone for St. Lucia given our small size but given the importance of energy we think it’s an issue that should be dealt with soon,” said Ephraim

The 25 minute BBC documentary featuring St. Lucia is expected to be broadcast to over 100 countries around the word beginning later this year. The umbrella body grouping regional power companies CARELEC is to meet here in early November, 2002 to discuss the issue of renewable energy.

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