By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
October 18, 2022
How Jamaica’s government is currently tying in its developmental plans with being climate resilient was the focus of a discussion between its Senator Matthew Samuda, and CEO of the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, Racquel Moses.
In the most recent United Nations General Assembly held in New York in September, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness told those gathered the importance of becoming climate resilient in the current world today, and shared that Jamaica held the belief “that a comprehensive and targeted approach to accessing development finance is needed”. However, Senator Samuda says while it is important to access financing for these projects, his government is utilizing a Systemic Approach Tool, all while conducting a full assessment of its tools to find out “what was ready and what was not, and putting that into its investment decisions”.
He says its not just about waiting on the developed world to do climate resilient development, but incorporating it into their short-, medium- and long-term development plans to ensure its capital expenditure, which he notes is growing due to increased fiscal space, reflects climate risks present.
Describing some of the systemic planning his government has incorporated into its projects, Minister Samuda said this has gone to include “roadwork and bridge expansion, building it further inland and ensuring there is appropriate drainage for that one in hundred-year storm, with its bridges more sturdy and communities are not left cut off”. While recent updated building codes, taking into consideration the magnitude of a possible category five Hurricane hitting the island.
Telecommunications infrastructure is being focused on to ensure it is able to withstand major climatic events, which also ties into its plans of creating policies that cater to these changes. He says Jamaica is currently in its final stages of looking at its Energy policy, emissions policy and its Climate change policy, all in which he says aim at feeding into its climate resilience approach and sustainability on a whole.
Looking at changes that include water harvesting within its projects, while engaging in renewables in all of its new construction projects, and by doing so, the senator says, are all some of the steps it is taking to de-risk investments. He says these moves are critical at this juncture, since Jamaica tiptoed a narrow path, where it was susceptible to major natural disasters that could set back the gains made in the last 12 years.
Noting current threats to the management of its macro-economic environment, he says with 70 percent of its population currently living just five kilometres off the sea, and fifty percent dwelling south east of Jamaica, and nearest to the plains just off the ocean, there is a call for proper seawalls and drainage, as well as proper housing schemes and buildings up to code, while ensuring most of its energy grid is also moved from above to where it is not impacted during heavy storms.
He says this includes taking into consideration where seawater is unable to erode or affect such infrastructure. Samuda says it’s a matter of investing in its people that protects them and guarantees survival that allows eventual thriving.
Samuda says a review of what has happened in the last twenty years where there has been an evolution of monster storms, forced government and its plans to rethink not just how it survives such catastrophic events, but intends to adapt to this ‘new normal’ in a manner that allows them to be resilient enough, while not just asking for investment, but for partnerships and trade.
These latest strides come after Jamaica has been in a place where it was not able to invest or position itself economically. As both Moses and Samuda share, where its ‘Macroeconomic stability had struggled with large surmounting debt’.
As a result, Samuda says its government saw it necessary to engage in Development partners especially those in the climate finance space, as many of the other products suitable for developed nations, were not applicable to Jamaica.
He adds Jamaica is no longer interested in the high interest debt swaps, and while there may be some debts it would like to refinance at better rates, generally he shares its most toxic debt was dealt with through what he terms a “very painful IMF program”. In sharing the list of partners his country has teamed up with in creating this climate resilience policy, including GCF and IDB to name a few, Samuda says while expensive, has allowed for the benefit of numerous stakeholder support as it showed collaboration between academia, finance, local and regional stakeholders which forced for a certain level of transparency and honesty.
However, while it has developed this tool, the senator says his country intends to eventually share it with the wider region, as it is viewed as something that can assist other nations withstand such climatic events. He adds the driving factor behind it all to be mitigators against the impact of climate change. And while countries such as Jamaica and the wider Caribbean might not be harmful emitters of greenhouse gases, it intends to take the approach of being vocal in the spaces where their voices are heard, and show that its “ambition is being met with policy and legislature changes, and where there is room for local investment”. He says it is now for countries who are responsible for such major emissions to take the necessary steps beyond their talks and signals, to where their funds match, along with the technical support in their efforts to assist. In the end, his country can atleast say its legislative and development framework is in line to what has been committed by his country given at the global level.
He says without this, making the noise and tantrums at the global level will not get his country anywhere to accessing the necessary funding which will enable them to the path of resilience.
Jamaica recently became the 11th in the world to meet and submit its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). But as to how it is managing to accomplish these goals, while being climate smart and resilient, Samuda says the moves made were “conservative enough to achieve it while readily bring in society along”.
He credits Una May Gordon, Principal Director of Climate Change, Jamaica’s Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation for working with each sector, showing where the private sector can buy into these projects. And while he notes the differences in politics among its parties, he notes where former prime minister Portia Simpson Miller was credited for establishing the Ministry of Climate Change. This he says has allowed for the country to ideally build the nation’s capacity and gauging of the management of the crisis.
But apart from what he terms being Climate Change warriors, it’s a matter of taking care of its people, as history has taught his nation that poverty levels often raise whenever the world faces an energy crisis. The ability of solar, wind and hydro to give stable predictable and much lower energy costs over a long period, Samuda says is an economic imperative equally as climatic importance to bring that stability. All of this also ties into attracting investors and being competitive in the investor world, where the domino effect leads to creating a fiscal space and long-term prosperity for its people.
Currently Jamaica has the first floating solar system within the English-speaking Caribbean, which sees a Private Consortium investment of US$62.5M over a 100 acre of water surface at the Mona reservoir. And for Samuda, he says the project which commenced back in 2017, ticks all the boxes with 45 megawatts of capacity, five megawatts wielded to other water commissioned locations which cuts its national energy by 30 percent, resulting in savings of over Jamaican $1B a year, which gives the fiscal space to deal with age old water issues, solving water intrusion both at sourcing and distribution, and was built to withstand a category four hurricane, while also having been built on recycled plastics.
In other areas, Samuda provided an update as to where Jamaica was in its selling carbon credits, an amount of 300 million units of the world’s first blue carbon credits along with windfarms. He says Jamaica is currently in the process of expanding its capacity to sell carbon credits, and admits while it is not as far along as he would like it to be, it is increasing its pace in preparation and anticipates by next year, to be in a much different place going to market.