Jamaica will achieve 30% renewable energy by 2020, says Holness

Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness claims that the island nation is on track to achieve 30 per cent of its electricity from renewables within two years under the current National Energy Policy.

“We now have a combined supply of just about 120 megawatts of renewable electricity power, which is currently in our grid and that will put us to about 15 and 18 per cent of electricity generation. so it is quite likely we will achieve the 30 per cent by 2020 if we continue at this pace,” Holness said.

The Prime minister Holness was addressing a ceremony to commission solar photovoltaic panels into operation at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

Prime Minister says he has directed that Jamaica pursues a target of achieving 50 per cent of its energy generation from renewables by 2030. Holness expressed confidence that the target can be achieved.

He noted that with the gains made in renewable energy, the Government is pushing to achieve “a more ambitious target of 50 per cent of our electricity generation from renewables by 2030”.

He said the move is aimed at mitigating against what he described as the ‘existential threat’ of climate change to the environment.

He said though the Caribbean emits less than one per cent of greenhouse gases, persons should not get caught up in the blame game but instead should do what they can to protect the environment.

“For us, climate change is not a seasonal change, for us, climate change is an existential threat. It is not an academic debate, we don’t have that luxury,” he declared.

“The people who will be on the front line from any catastrophe of our environment will be Small Island Developing States like Jamaica. The ignorance of the threat is not on those who, for political or academic reasons, decide to be blind to it. It is for those who will be impacted by it, but are too poor to have the information and understand it,” he continued.

The prime minister noted that the installation of the solar panels at OPM will result in a reduction in the electricity bill.