Speaker of the Anguilla House of Assembly, David Carty, speaking in his capacity as Chairman of the island’s National Energy Committee, told reporters that he came away from the recent COP15 Climate Change World Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, feeling proud of the work of his local committee.

The Hon. David Carty

Mr. Carty was at the tine reporting on the conference attended by almost forty-five thousand delegates and 119 world leaders. “I came away more convinced than ever that we too have a responsibility to change the way we think and the way we act,” he stated. “I came away feeling very proud of the work that the committee has done in the last two years.”

He said the committee comprised a volunteer group of people across Anguilla, from various walks of life, who had been “working very hard in trying to design a programme where Anguilla steps up to the plate in terms of mitigation and adaptation to limit the amount of green house gases we put into the atmosphere and change our economy.”

Mr. Carty continued: “The Energy Committee over the last two years has aimed, very ambitiously, in trying to change the way we generate electricity on Anguilla and lay serious plans for renewable energy and for change in how our transportation in vehicles is done. This is an effort over time to get away from diesel and gasoline powered vehicles to hybrid or electric vehicles.”

Mr. Carty disclosed that the Committee had hired a Scientist/Engineer from the National Energy Lab in Colorado to assist it in thinking the matter through. “We have been supported very nicely by the Board of Directors of ANGLEC who have all seen that this is the way we need to think and to go. We have drafted and discussed in some detail our proposed energy policy with the technocrats in the Government, namely the Permanent Secretaries and some Engineers and have taken it to Executive Council and I am gratified to say that I have heard unofficially that the policy was approved which is very good news.”

Mr. Carty went on: “We have made a very ambitious proposal to the Clinton Global Initiative in New York as a result of the President’s visit here two years ago to seek the help of a big brother, an NGO, of some global significance… to make this transition. This demands three very important things: the political will of our Government and our utility to make the change. It demands a lot of capital finance and it calls for technology that will allow us to make this change.

“We are very confident and very positive and very bullish on all three. We believe that Anguilla, apart from the Government and its support, that Anguilla and Anguillians will become in time excited about what I call a new revolution. Even though we have to do a lot of public relations work to sell this to our people. I think it provides a different aspect of economic development in a way that we have never have before – the creation of a green economy green jobs and all the spin-offs that it can lead to.”

Mr. Carty noted that he was very heartened to hear in Copenhagen the very creative ideas that were being put forward by bankers, financiers, philanthropists and most importantly, the technical people who build turbines, solar panels. They are committed to work out financial mechanisms that allow small island states to invest heavily into these technologies. That was something that was pleasantly a huge eye-opener for me and made me feel very gratified about the planning we have done.”

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