This week, we witnessed the proceedings in the Anguilla House of Assembly where legislation was passed to exempt the importation of electric vehicles from customs duty and excise tax. This decisive action by the executive and legislative arms of our Government sends a clear signal that Government is committed to renewable energy and has joined the global movement for climate action.
As a small island washed by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, there is no doubt that Anguilla is “on the front line” of climate change. The fact that just this week we marked the 5th anniversary of the passage of Hurricane Irma is a cogent reminder to us of our vulnerabilities to natural disasters which have become more prevalent and devastating as a result of climate change. We are also seeing all around our coastline significant beach erosion mainly due to increased wave action as a result of coral reef systems dying from rising ocean temperatures or being destroyed during severe weather events. We therefore cannot ignore the global calls for climate action – reduce reliance on fossil fuels which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and rely on natural energy sources. While admittedly our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is negligible, we cannot be hypocritical in our approach by calling on larger countries or contributors to take action while we ourselves do nothing.
We must therefore applaud the efforts of our Government to address this issue by incentivising, or some would say rewarding, the use of electric vehicles. Hopefully this will encourage persons to embrace this environmentally friendly alternative to meeting our transportation needs. Government also recently shared that with the assistance of relevant UK Government agencies, exploratory efforts were underway to determine whether the Blowing Point to Marigot ferry service could be powered by renewable sources. This exciting possibility would definitely be unchartered waters for Anguilla and perhaps even a first in the region. However, we must await word from Government regarding the results of the exploratory work and the next steps. As members of the public, it is important for us to keep an open mind about these developments. As the world changes, technology changes and we have to be willing to embrace these changes or risk being left behind. What better way to demonstrate our commitment to climate action than by the integration of renewables into our transportation sector?
Actually, I can think of one other way. We need to tackle the issue of our main energy provider – ANGLEC. For successive governing administrations, the future of ANGLEC has been the “elephant in the room”, that nobody seems to know how to handle. I think one thing is clear to the public and hopefully should be clear to Government – ANGLEC in its current form cannot continue. Boards have been changed, CEOs have been changed, senior staff have been changed and the challenges remain. There is need for an entire paradigm shift in the supply of electricity to consumers with or without ANGLEC. In fact, if Government is serious about renewable energy transition, ANGLEC’s future depends on how adaptable it is to those changes and whether it is positioned to embrace new technology and methods of electricity supply and distribution. It may be that ANGLEC can no longer have a monopoly and must adjust, be competitive or die. Unfortunately this is the harsh reality of the quagmire that we are currently in. Unless this is addressed decisively, we will continue to be bombarded in the media with the open spats and chess game between ANGLEC and the Government stemming from the company’s financial woes, rising operating costs and uncollected debts; with no real solution for bringing long term relief and delivering more affordable energy to us the consumers.
It is therefore my hope that Government’s efforts will not end with the concessions on importation of electric vehicles but will extend to dealing with the supply of energy to the country generally. As our current Government has been known to espouse “we cannot continue to kick the can down the road”. Let us hope that this holds true for the ANGLEC debacle.
