National Trust hosts lecture on climate change

Louis Mitchell-Joseph, Chairman of the Board of the National Trust, is of the view that government {{more}} is not doing enough to highlight the issue of climate change.

This sentiment was expressed at a lecture staged by the National Trust and sponsored by the United States Embassy on Thursday, July 15, 2010.

She pointed out that while the government was busy dealing with policy on job creation and economics, not enough focus was being put on the importance of climate change and its impact.

While she acknowledged that there had been some emphasis on the local front to look at measures to deal with the issue, Mitchell-Joseph contended that not enough has been done to deal with the issue of disseminating information as it relates to the global problem.

“I don’t think there is penetration,” she said.

Mitchell-Joseph noted that while some of the more senior civil servants in the country were well versed on the measures to be implemented, the rest of the public were being left out.

Leonard Deane, a member of the audience, explained that within recent times, the current administration has been addressing the issue of renewable alternative energy resources.

He said the government had gone as far as implementing an energy unit to look at alternative energy resources.

Deane also spoke of the initiative taken by government to erect new buildings which meet energy saving standards.

Once enough persons had received the information and had become knowledgeable on the issue of climate change, the price of mitigation and the challenge of getting people to change were discussed by other members of the audience.

The feature presentation was made by United States based environmental economist, Dr. Chris Busch.

Dr.Busch suggested that government should develop policies to directly deal with the issue of reducing carbon emissions.

He spoke of the California model where he was instrumental in developing a policy in 2006 for emission levels in that state to be returned to that of 1990, a goal which has been set to be achieved by 2020.

Rebates for persons purchasing fuel efficient or electric cars and a system where major polluters are made to purchase permits were implemented over time to offset the emission of poisonous gases, said Dr.Busch.

“We need to try to fight and maintain hope, to get up and make change,” Busch said. (DD)