Green Committee

on december 14, 2020 Committee Chair, mr. Gregory rose met with representatives of the exercise tradewinds secretariat to discuss potential opportunities for collaboration. Key discussion points were the security of commerce and food during disasters, identification of warehouses for the storage of emergency food and supplies, cyberattacks and privacy issues, risk management training for the security community and facilitation of insurance against physical lost during business interruptions.

the members of the disaster risk reduction Committee were:

• mr. Gregory rose - Chair & Ceo Lynch Insurance Brokers Ltd • mr. david Alleyne - Brydens Insurance • mr. Wayne Lowe - Grantley Adams International Airport • ms. Kerry Hinds - department of emergency management • ms. Kim Jones - sagicor Lifer Inc • mr. Gregory Hazzard - director, mahy, ridley Hazzard engineers • mr. errol Wallace - CIBC first Caribbean • mr sabu Best - Barbados meteorological services • mr Keithroy Halliday - Barbados Water Authority

gREEN COMMITTEE

the mandate of the Green Committee is to support Barbados’ goal of reaching 100% renewable energy/energy efficient usage. It seeks to assist the Chamber and its members in reducing their energy footprint. Its primary focus also includes renewable energy and energy efficiency towards the achievement of a sustainable green economy.

Chaired by mr. Andy Armstrong of Armstrong Agencies, the Committee’s membership is comprised of the following:

• Ms. Lani Edghill (Green Business Barbados) • Mr. Hallam Edwards (Enermax) • Mr. Jerry Franklin (Ensmart Inc.) • Mr. Robert Hinds (Atlantis Submarines) • Mr. Neilsen Beneby (Emera Caribbean) • Ms. Vidisha Hathiramani (Lex Caribbean) • Mr. Shimon Mc Intosh (RBC Royal Bank (Barbados) Limited) • Ms. Stacey Hem Lee (Republic Bank) • Mrs. Trisha Tannis - BCCI President (ex -officio) • Mrs. Misha Lobban Clarke – BCCI Executive Director (ex-officio)

during 2020, a Green finance sub-committee was formed to focus on financing options for renewable energy projects. this sub-committee has looked at what are the main issues that make projects less bankable and has written both Barbados Light & power (BLp) and the ministry of the environment (moe) seeking to have some of these impediments removed. BL&p has accepted some of the recommendations and the moe has indicated that they are considering our recommendations.

meeting with the ministry of energy, small Business and entrepreneurship mr. Andy Armstrong, Committee Chair accompanied the BCCI president and executive to a meeting with the Honourable Kerrie symmonds, minister of energy, small Business and entrepreneurship in september 2020. At this meeting, the Chair discussed a several renewable energy concerns with the minister including delays in the approval process for renewable energy installations caused by the fact that there are various bodies which need to review applications before tCpo can grant approval and the lack of clarity on how long the process takes.

on october 9, 2020, the Committee wrote a letter to minister symmonds requesting a follow-up meeting to further discuss renewable energy issues and to seek alignment with the ministry. the Committee continues to follow up on this matter with a view to having a meeting with the minister. the Committee also intends to meet with the Barbados revenue Authority (BrA) to discuss pertinent matters related to the bankability of renewable energy projects.

renewable energy In the last quarter of 2020, members of the Committee had two productive meetings and various follow ups with the fair-trading Commission (ftC). the ftC has been very keen to engage and to seek advice. the second meeting reviewed the feed-In-tariff (fIt) decision on larger renewable energy projects.

Another concern is the number of different agencies involved in project approval. this makes it cumbersome and challenging for investors. Ideally there should be one agency coordinating applications to speed up the deployment of renewable energy systems. the committee is putting together a brief on the current process as well as recommendations to improve efficiencies.

the Barbados national energy (oil) Company is planning to launch a bio diesel project. the committee made them aware that there is a current small producer of bio diesel (paradise Green energy). BneC was unaware and two months later had not followed up with this small producer. to date, there has been no feedback on the progress of the BneC project.