Climate Weekly - Jamaica’s climate plan, BP’s solar panels and Barbados to become Seaweed Energy capital of the Caribbean
Hi again,
Welcome to Climate Weekly!
Each week we’ll ask one guest writer from our network to give you a short selection of some of the best climate news from their region, giving you a little window into some climate stories you probably didn’t see in your News Feed.
This week, we’re focussed on the Caribbean, as Trinidad and Tobago’s Daryll Griffith takes us inside the newest sustainability shifts across the region
Hello,
and welcome to latest vibes from the Caribbean!
I’m Daryll and instead of complaining about COVID I’d like to draw your attention to some positive shifts in the region over the past two weeks.
1. Jamaica becomes first Caribbean nation to submit tougher climate plan to UN
The island home of almost 3 million and of course, Reggae, became only the 11th country to update its national Climate plan this week, in line with the promises of the Paris Agreement. The new goal commits to a 25.4% emission cut in the energy sector and makes sure to bring in land use change and forestry emissions for the first time.
2. Trinidad and Tobago makes its entrance into the Renewables Space
My home country has a unique place in the Caribbean’s sustainability narrative, as it is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters per person on the planet. That’s thanks to its oil and gas industry, led by BP & Shell. In a unique turn of events, these same fossil fuel giants are now collaborating on some of the first utility-scale solar projects across the country. The solar PV installations aim to generate 92.2 MW (approximately 6% of T&Ts peak energy demand) of electricity from solar PV.
This comes off news this week that Trinidad and Tobago has also become the first Caribbean country to join the WHO-led BreatheLife campaign!
3. Barbados wants to become the seaweed energy capital of the Caribbean
Since 2018, the pristine beaches of Barbados have been regularly covered in a strain of brown seaweed called sargassum. For the tourism-heavy economy, that’s a potential death-blow to the island. Barbados however is now trying to transform this into an economic windfall, and is now planning on transforming the seaweed into biofuel.
Last week we made a Hurricanes Reporting Handbook, and hosted a Webinar with Kristine Sabillo (the Philippines) and Julio Batista (Cuba). Check it out incase you haven’t yet.
Vanessa Nakate has become an iconic voice in Africa’s environmental movement. Her Op-Ed this week argued that Racism is having a silencing impact on Africa’s environmental stories, and called for journalists and NGOs alike to work alongside African journalists, not over the top of them.
What else we’re reading
This open-source Academic paper on Climate debates, denial and discourse
How COVID-19 has become a smokescreen for logging from Brazil to Madagascar, Colombia to Cambodia
It might not be a climate story, but as lithium and rare earth metals mining increases around the world, the news of the horrific jade mine collapse in Myanmar is a stark reminder of the mining industry’s vast injustices
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