In the not-too-distant future, electric vehicles could very well be big users of the roads of Anguilla.
This is a possibility given the fast-growing consciousness on the island about alternative sources of energy; the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment; the increasing cost and pollution of fossil fuels; the need to save money; and the benefits of solar energy.
There are already a number of electric vehicles on the island and the latest information, in that regard, is a recent application that reached the Executive Council from someone desirous of importing such a vehicle.
That desire is reflected in the Executive Council’s Minutes dated April 18, 2019 and published a week later, April 26, on the Government’s webpage. The particular EXCO Minute reads:
“Council noted a request for duty exemption on a 2015 Nissan Leaf electric vehicle, storage batteries and solar panels on the premise that it is Government’s policy to encourage endeavours that are co-friendly and to provide concessions in order to achieve this goal.”
The Anguillian newspaper asked Mr. David Carty, a well-known advocate for climate change awareness, the use of solar energy, and a passionate environmentalist, to comment on electric vehicles and other related matters.
“There is a direct economic benefit,” he stated. “We start saving real money on fuel – gasoline and diesel. ANGLEC spends fifty million EC dollars a year on diesel. I don’t have the figures for what we spend on gasoline for all the amount of vehicles that we have. All I know is that we spend millions of Anguillian dollars, every year, buying fuel – both gasoline and diesel. If we started to invest heavily in alternative sources of energy, both in ANGLEC, in particular in terms of electricity, and in electric cars, we will begin to save and not send all that money to Venezuela, Aruba and wherever else we are buying all this fuel from. It seems to me economic sense that the more we save in imports of fuel, the better off the Anguillian economy would be. That is the first and foremost thing I think that most people should identify with.”
He continued: “As small as we are, we need to play our own part in the global effort to reduce greenhouse gases. The primary cause of greenhouse gases is the burning of fossil fuels – in our case diesel and gasoline. It is immoral to simply sit back and say that the developed world is the cause of this so Europe, China and the United States must do this. We have passed that stage. All global treaties, especially the Paris Agreement is clear. Everybody must play his or her part.
“If we had started switching fifteen or twenty years ago to a green economy, we would not only be saving money, but we could also invest in our tourism promotion in a way that we could show the rest of the world that we are progressive; we are green and taking care of the environment; and are doing all the things that more and more sophisticated people who have money to spend on an expensive holiday appreciate.
“So there are multiple benefits – economic and environmental – that we will benefit from if we start to seriously invest in renewable energies and alternative sources of transportation. Electric cars are going through the roof in terms of production now. Norway and Sweden, I think, are banning all fuel vehicles very quickly. You cannot buy a diesel or gasoline car there in a matter of one or two years.
“In our case, the House of Commons [in London] just passed a Resolution about the urgency to get the UK off fossil fuel…I find this great in one way, but hypocritical in another way because they are doing nothing in the case of the Overseas Territories – to help us to make that transition.”
Mr. Carty added: “Anguilla does not have to wait for that assistance. We are a small tropical island and all the negative effects from climate change, researched by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), keeps saying that those negative effects will first be felt by small tropical islands. We got a taste from Hurricane Irma so what are we waiting for?
“My particular beef is that we have had a policy in place for years which neither the Government nor ANGLEC has taken a lead on. The Government needs to incentify everybody in Anguilla to start buying electric vehicles and start phasing out fuel vehicles. The Government needs to help ANGLEC to make a significant transition from diesel to wind and solar energy. As far as I see, nothing is happening.”
