The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

THE director of Bahamas National Trust has applauded the Davis administration’s pledge to become the first country to sell blue carbon credits and to generate at least 30 percent of the country’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Eric Carey called the prime minister’s announced initiatives on the environment “the right move”.

Mr Carey also said that The Bahamas entering the carbon trading business would provide valuable funding to further environmental sustainability.

“Getting into the blue carbon trading business means that we, if we can indeed determine that we have viable, significant viable tradable stocks of carbon, it means we have the opportunity to provide funding or to secure funding because of the work that we’re doing sequestering carbon,” Mr Carey said. “So it’s a very positive move and there’s still a lot of work to do before we are able to sell our first carbon credit but at least we are making the right moves.”

Mr Carey also said that the legislation that will be put in place needs to be highly regulated in order to meet international carbon credit standards.

“The legislative framework the government has put in place provides the legal mechanism under which we can create the relevant national initiatives to be able to legally manage this important sector. This needs to be highly regulated at the national level because it is very highly regulated at the international level. You can’t just make up carbon credits, you have to have inventory and then you have to go through the verification and then you have you to make a commitment to lock those carbon sources.”

Last week, the House of Assembly passed the Climate Change and Carbon Market Initiatives Bill, 2022. The Bill needs to be debated and passed in the Senate before it is enacted.

At a climate conference in Miami on Thursday, Prime Minister Philip Davis said the government intends for The Bahamas to be the first country to sell blue carbon credits and it is envisioned this will generate some of the resources needed to make progress toward transitioning the country to renewable energy and building climate resilient infrastructure.

“We intend to be the first country to sell blue carbon credits,” Mr Davis said last week. “We hope many of our regional neighbours will follow suit. We believe that selling blue carbon credits in the voluntary carbon markets will generate at least some of the resources we need to make real progress in transitioning our country to renewable energy and building climate-resilient infrastructure. In this way, carbon markets can be an important bridge to a renewable energy future for countries such as ours.

“We have committed to generating at least 30 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2030. Our National Energy Policy outlines the country’s pivot to a more modern, diversified, efficient, competitive and affordable energy sector, which will include updating our legal and regulatory regime.”

While Mr Carey doesn’t know if the country will reach these goals by the target date, he knows that his organisation will assist the government through several different initiatives.

In addressing the Davis administration’s wider plans to promote more environmental consciousness in the face of climate change, including replacing the government fleet of cars with largely electric vehicles, Mr Carey believes that The Bahamas can be the standard bearer for the region.

“Obviously getting away from fossil fuels sends the right message, but the reality is The Bahamas does not consume a globally significant amount of hydrocarbons. We are a very small country but notwithstanding that, but any efforts that we can undertake to reduce our carbon footprints ourselves as a country certainly sends the right message and supports the message we are sending to the world that we are one of the most vulnerable countries on the planet to some of the impacts of climate change.

“And certainly using renewable energy, looking for cleaner energy vehicles, trying to reduce our waste, eliminating plastics. All of these are the proper signals the right signals to send the planet that despite the fact that we are not a large net polluter, we are going to do our part and we are going to lead by example and we are going to support our message that we are preaching to the rest of the planet,” Mr Carey said.