 Good afternoon everyone. Please stand for the entrance of Governor General, his Excellency Sir Emanuel Neville Snack and Lady Snack. Please remain standing for the National Anthem of St. Lucia, to be performed by noted St. Lucia jazz guitarist Ronald Boo Hingson and award-winning composer Arranger Panis Allison Markey who is also the customer care engineer at Lucillac. Thank you Boo. Thank you Allison. You may have your seats. Your Excellency Sir Emanuel Neville Snack, Governor General of St. Lucia and Lady Snack. Honorable Alan Shasney, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation, External Affairs and Public Service of St. Lucia. Members of the Cabinet of St. Lucia. President Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America. Mr. Jose Maria Figueres, Former President of Costa Rica. Honorable Philip J. Pierre, Leader of the Opposition. Honorable Dr. Kenny Anthony, Parliamentary Representative for Viewport North, Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries. Mr. John Joseph, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited and other Board members. Mr. Trevor Luisi, Managing Director of the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited. Other members of the Management Team of the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited. Representatives of the Clinton Foundation, Rocky Mountain Institute. Ms. Chisa Nikami, Deputy Representative, Resident Representative, UNDP Office for Barbados and the OECS. Mr. Javier Vela, Kunkia of Group Tech, specially invited guest. Staff members of the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited. Members of the media, good afternoon and welcome to the official opening ceremony of Lucilek's three-megawatt solar farm. My name is Bernardia Rages, Corporate Communications Assistant at Lucilek and I will be your master of ceremonies this afternoon. We're really pleased that all of you are able to join us today for what is a special occasion for Lucilek. A high point of many years of relentless march to introduce utility, scale renewable energy into our generation portfolio. Thank you for your presence. The solar farm is located in the Latuni community, which sits in the constituency of Viewfort South and I would now like to invite Honorable Dr. Kenny Antony, the Parliamentary Representative for Viewfort South to make a few remarks. Dr. Kenny Antony. The Excellencies are Emmanuel Neville, St. Governor General of St. Lucia, President Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America and delegation. Mr. Shastney, Prime Minister and Mr. Shastney. Members of the Cabinet of St. Lucia, Mr. Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, Honorable Philip J. Pierre, Leader of the Opposition, Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries, General Manager of Lucilek, staff and members of Lucilek, ladies and gentlemen. In January 2003, I had a special honor of being the host Prime Minister to President Bill Clinton on his memorable and historic visit to St. Lucia. Today I am again honored to welcome President Clinton and his delegation and this time to my constituency, Viewfort South, where this facility, as you heard, is located. Today's official opening of this new 3.2 megawatts solar farm marks an important milestone in the development of the energy sector in our country. With the assimilation of this solar energy into our national grid, we are effectively adding a little over 5% of renewable energy to our national energy profile. Put another way, we are reducing our dependence on fossil fuels by 5%. In celebrating this achievement, we must not forget the vision and the hard work that got us here. This journey started with a promise by my former administration when it assumed office in December 2011 to increase the penetration of renewable energy in our national grid by 20% by the year 2020. However, in making that pledge, we understood that we were going into uncharted territory and we needed to build a correlation of development partners to help us along the way. The former Minister of Sustainable Development and Energy, Dr. Jimmy Fletcher, with the blessings of the Cabinet of Ministers enlisted the support of the Clinton Climate Initiative. During a sustainable energy for all meeting in Barbados in 2012, Dr. Fletcher met with Jan Hartke and Ira Magasina, and I hope I have the words right, of the Clinton Foundation and a very successful partnership was born. One year later, our government extended this partnership when we brought Sir Richard Branson's Carbon War Room on board after another meeting this time in London between Jimmy Fletcher and Peter Boyd and Maya Dulub. Soon, our energy coalition started to grow with the World Bank added in 2013 and the New Zealand government SIDSDoc and the Caribbean Development Bank in 2014. Also in 2014, at a Renewable Energy Summit hosted by Richard Branson on Necker Island, I announced that St. Lucia would be increasing our renewable energy penetration ambition to 35% by the year 2020. But as it is so well known, Prime Ministers may propose, but the electorate may choose to dispose. Today, we are seeing the coming to fruition of one of the elements of the ambitious energy program that we set in 2011, and for this, I am very pleased. I am glad, President Clinton, that you are here with us today so I can thank you in person. Apart from the Clinton Climate Initiative, I also thank the Carbon War Room, Rocky Mountain Institute and Lucillec for their commitment and perseverance with this project. I also want to thank those who worked hard to get this journey started and lay the foundation that has brought us to this point. The former Minister Jimmy Fletcher and the staff of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Energy were the trailblazers who translated the vision of our government to a modern diversified competitive and renewables-based energy sector into a structured, sensible, resource program. I am reliably informed that Lucillec is looking to expand on this initial investment with the installation of battery storage. This suggests that the approach that my government employed of treating Lucillec as a partner rather than an adversary in our energy transformation program appears to have paid off. Others have approached it differently and the results have not been as successful. However, as exciting and pleasing as today's achievement is, it would be remiss of me if I did not also use this occasion to reflect on some missed opportunities and to hope that we will soon see the restart and completion of other critical elements of the National Energy Transformation Program. It would be good to see the tabling in Parliament of the new suite of energy legislation that my former government initiated, which will create the environment for a truly modern and diversified energy sector. The decision to stop the CDB-funded island-wide LED streetlight retrofit should also be revisited and this project restarted. These funds were made available to the government at highly concessional terms and the annual savings to government and relatively short payback period more than justified the investment. Unfortunately, the wind farm development was stopped over a simple issue where we should now have a 12 megawatt wind farm generating renewable energy into our national grid. With dividends for local shareholders and benefits for consumers, we have shrubs and snakes on undeveloped land. I point out these things because transforming our energy sector is very important for us economically, socially and environmentally. At the economic level, it will allow us to reduce the high cost of electricity. When we drive these costs downward, we make every economic sector more competitive. At the social level, it brings benefits to all sectors of our society, particularly the poor and vulnerable among us. At the environmental level, our transition away from the use of fossil fuels will allow us to play a leadership role in the global fight to minimize the emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing our planet to warm at such an alarming and dangerous rate. These benefits will take time to percolate, and for that reason, it is vital that Lucellec dramatically increases its efforts to explain to the public the value of these investments to our society, economy and ecology. Mr Chairman, this solar farm is in the constituency of VFOR South, which I have had the honor and privilege to represent in parliament for the last 21 years. So on behalf of the residents of VFOR South, I will conclude by saying that despite our misgivings about the location of this solar farm, we accept that it is a transformational facility. I look forward to seeing it serve as a catalyst for other sensible, sustainable development initiatives in the South and for the broader transformation of the energy sector that must take place nationally. I thank you one and all. Thank you, Honorable Dr. Kenny Antony, the Parliamentary Representative for VFOR South. Today's opening is the fulfillment of an ambition long held by Lucellec. Our managing director has been with the company for nearly 30 years and hasn't been involved in many of Lucellec's major milestones in various capacities during that time. We now invite Mr. Trevor Luisi, Lucellec's managing director to deliver his remarks. Your Excellency, Sir Emmanuel Nevel-Snack, Governor-General of St. Lucia and Lady Snack, Honorable Alan Shasne, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation, External Affairs and Public Service of St. Lucia and Mrs. Shasne. Members of the Cabinet of St. Lucia, President Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States of America, Mr. Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, Honorable Philip J. Pierre, Leader of the Opposition, Honorable Kenny D. Anthony, Parliamentary Representative for VFOR North, Deputy Permanent Secretaries, Mr. John Joseph, Chairman of the Board of St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited and other Board Members. Other Members of the Management Team of St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited, Representatives of the Clinton Foundation Rocky Mountain Institute. And on that note, I would like to utilize the protocol already established. Another page, another chapter. The first pages of Lucellec's history book were written in 1964. As we look back over the pages of that book, we see several milestones, several major achievements in the development of electricity here in St. Lucia. We see also that Lucellec's history has been integrally intertwined with St. Lucia's economic and social development. Today is no different. As we officially open the first utility scale renewable energy system in St. Lucia, we are adding another page, another chapter in the history of Lucellec, in the history of power generation and in the history of St. Lucia. I won't detail the history of Lucellec's foray into solar energy today, except to note that we officially started in 2009 with a pilot project to integrate rooftop solar photovoltaic systems or solar PV into the grid. Presently, and not including this solar farm, there are approximately 771 kilowatts of installed solar PV from 92 systems connected to the grid island wide. Some of the inputters for the integration of renewable energy came with the approval of the national energy policy by the government of St. Lucia in 2010 with targets for renewable energy penetration. In 2013, Lucellec completed the feasibility study on a three megawatt utility scale solar PV system and work on the request for proposals was started in 2015 with the support of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Carbon War Room and DNVGL. The RFP was issued in 2016 and attracted over 40 bidders from all over the world for the mandatory site visit that formed part of the process. Grupo Tech, an international company with a strong presence in the Caribbean and a portfolio of over 500 megawatts of solar PV plants worldwide was contracted to undertake this project. Construction of the solar farm began in November 2017 and the entire three megawatts of this solar farm came online on April 11th of this year. It has been connected to and feeding into the Lucellec grid since then. This solar farm is funded owned and operated by Lucellec. It costs approximately 20 million East Caribbean dollars and occupies about 15 acres of this piece of land purchased from in West St. Lucia. It will form part of a power complex that we are proposing to develop. It's nearly 15,000 panels arranged in three main banks or arrays. It will generate approximately 7 million kilowatt hours or units of electricity per year. That's about 1.3 percent of the electricity generated annually from Lucellec's diesel-based cul-de-sac power plant, which incidentally sits on the same area of land, 15 acres. So that should give you an idea of how land intensive utility scale solar powers. The solar farm will reduce the volume of fuel purchased by Lucellec by about 300,000 gallons annually. A very small amount really, but when you consider we use approximately 20,000, 20 million gallons of fuel per year. But we think it is a start, small in volume, but the basis for big aspirations. For the country, the solar farm aligns neatly with the national energy transition strategy that seeks to promote a blueprint for new energy future in St. Lucia. An energy future that is focused on developing renewable energy resources and how best to integrate the optimum mix of renewable energies into the national energy grid at least costs without compromising the stability and reliability that we are accustomed to. It brings us one step closer to the goal of 35 percent of energy from renewable energy sources by 2020 and reduces our dependence on important fossil fuel. Lucellec anticipates making further contributions to renewable energy development in St. Lucia. We are currently working on a study to determine the optimum location for interconnecting a large storage battery on the grid, which we hope to commission sometime next year. Despite the several setbacks to date, we will continue working towards the development of the 12 megawatt wind farm and we will also continue providing as much support as we can to the government of St. Lucia with the ongoing geothermal exploration and development. In concluding, there are many anonymous contributors to history. No one makes history alone and Lucellec has not been alone in writing this new page or this new chapter in the annals of the development of electricity infrastructure on the island. I take this opportunity therefore to thank the teams from the Rocky Mountain Institute, Carbon War Room, Clinton Climate Initiative and DNVGL and their respective donor agencies for their support in the development of the national energy transition strategy, Lucellec's own integrated resource plan, the development of the RFP for this solar farm, and the oversight of the bidding process and contract negotiations. Our thanks also go out to the former and current ministers of energy and sustainable development, the support staff at these ministries and the government of St. Lucia for their respective and various levels of support to get us to this moment in history. I also want to express my appreciation to GrupoTech for the excellent work they did in completing this project. Although slightly delayed, it was still within budget and to our specifications and to all the Lucellec staff who have been involved in one way or another in overseeing the project through its various stages to ensure its successful conclusion. Thank you for your efforts. Indeed without you and all the staff and all the Lucellec staff past and present, our history book would hardly have any pages worth reading. As we get ready to cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of this three megawatt solar farm, in more ways than one, we are changing St. Lucia's energy landscape and the new energy future for St. Lucia is being written. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Luisi. We now welcome back Ronald Buhingsen and Allison Marquis for a brief musical interlude, this time for something not so formal. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Ronald Buhingsen and Allison Marquis, two of the wealth of really talented musician St. Lucia is blessed with. Did I tell you that Allison works with Lucellec? I did, but I just thought I'd slip it back in again. We would like to invite Honorable Stevenson King, the Minister of Infrastructure, POTS, Energy and Labor, who has portfolio responsibility for Lucellec to address us now. Your Excellency, St. Manuel Neville Snack, Governor-General of St. Lucia and Lady Snack, Honorable Arlen Shastney, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation, External Affairs and the Public Service of St. Lucia, members of the St. Lucia Cabinet, President Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America, Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, Honorable Philip J. Pierre, leader of the opposition, Dr. Kenny D. Antony, Parliamentary Representative of VA for North and former Prime Minister, Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries, Mr. John Joseph, Chairman of the Board of Directors of St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited and other Board members, Mr. Trevor Luisi, Managing Director of the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited, other members of the Management Team of the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited, representatives of the Clinton Foundation Rocky Mountain Institute, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Energy is at the heart of everyday human life and is pivotal to our very existence. It underpins social, physical and economic development, which are in turn affected by the availability and access to reliable and cost-effective energy by all strata of society. We rely on energy services for electricity generation, transportation, water supply, food production and telecommunications, to name a few. It is therefore clear that energy services are critical to the well-being and advancement of our people. Like many other countries, St. Lucia depends almost exclusively on imported fossil fuels to meet local energy demands. Consequently, local energy supplies and prices are highly dependent on the vagaries of the global marketplace, with resulting negative social and economic impacts during all price spikes. Further, from as far back as the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, a global clarion call was made, urging for development of renewable energy resources since the link between the combustion of fossil fuels and increased greenhouse gas emissions and anthropogenic induced climate change had been suggested while noting the limited supply and unsustainable nature of fossil fuel use as a source of energy. St. Lucia's commitment to the Paris Agreement and NDCs signalled our nation's intention to reach ambitious climate and energy goals cognizant of our special vulnerabilities as a Caribbean small island development nation. The events of Hurricane Thomas, the Christmas Eve trough, hurricanes Maria and Irma are all grim reminders of the urgency of climate action by all, especially the bigger and more developed nations. It is with these considerations in mind that successive governments have resolved to transform the island's energy sector to achieve greater energy efficiency, decrease dependency on fossil fuels, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and greater indigenous renewable energy penetration to promote social and economic development with minimal harm to the natural environment. From the elaboration of the natural sustainable energy plan as far back as 2001 to the endorsement by cabinet of the national energy policy in 2010 and ramped up renewable energy targets in 2014 and most recently the approval of the national energy transition strategy or NETS by the cabinet of ministers in 2018. The government of St. Lucia has continuously affirmed its commitment to the use of clean energy and clean technologies. The NETS endorsed by our cabinet in April of this year was developed through consultative and participatory process led by the government of St. Lucia and Lusleck through technical assistance from the Clinton climate initiative and Rocky Mountain Institute Carbon War Room with support from DNV GL and funding from the global environment facility. It constitutes a roadmap for achieving greater renewable energy penetration within our energy mix while pursuing energy efficiency with three central principles as follows. Service reliability intended to achieving lower than historical outage duration and frequency. Two, cost containment to reduce customer costs, reduce impact of fuel volatility and ensure financial viability of the utility. And three, energy independence to achieve renewable energy targets, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and achieve increased energy diversity. The NETS results indicate that St. Lucia should develop energy efficiency in solar, wind and energy storage projects as well as geothermal if the resource provides to be proves to be commercially viable. Today marks a milestone as indicated by the general manager in the transformation of our energy sector to a more sustainable pathway with the official opening of this three megawatt solar farm, the first utility scale solar farm on our beloved island. It expresses also the determination of not only the government and Lusleck to achieving the recommendations of the NETS, the commitments to the Paris Agreement and the international development agenda 2015-2030 and the sustainable development goals, but more importantly the desire and resolve of our people to meeting and overcoming the challenges that are before us through collective effort. As we continue to implement the NETS and increase renewable energy penetration within the energy mix, we will experience greater energy security which is defined as the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price. This is critical to ensuring that economic and social gains are sustained and not easily eroded by oil price volatility on the global market. I would therefore wish to congratulate Lusleck on this bold and audacious achievement and investment. Fuel savings of up to 300,000 gallons are anticipated and it is estimated that this solar farm has a generation capacity of up to 1.3 percent of the electricity generated presently by Lusleck at its cul-de-sac plant. Special mention and thanks must be extended to the Clinton Climate Initiative and Rocky Mountain Institute Carbon War Room for their active role in the procurement process for the solar farm and their professional management of better expectations. The team assisted with project challenges especially those associated with geotechnical uncertainties, the preparation of a glint and glare study, and assisting with obtaining requisite permits and approvals. These efforts have manifested in what we are witnessing here today and even more importantly will contribute to lower electricity prices in the long run for all Saint Lucians. The Ministry of Infrastructure, Ports, Energy, and Labor in partnership with the National Utilities Regulatory Commission, Lusleck, and the sector at large will continue to facilitate the implementation of the NETS recommendations and at a broader level to champion the cause to foster lower energy costs without compromising system reliability and yet promote efficiency within the electricity services sector. The ripple effects we are convinced are central to ending poverty, inequity, and achieving environmental sustainability which are contiguous to the tenets of the International Development Agenda 2015-2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. In closing, it would be remiss of me if I were to end without extending my sincere personal thanks and appreciation and that of the government and people of Saint Lucia to a dear friend of Saint Lucia as expressed by the former Prime Minister, President William Jefferson Bill Clinton, who has graced us with his presence here today. A clear demonstration of his unwavering commitment to clean energy and addressing the issues of climate change in a dynamic and meaningful way. To you, President Clinton, I thank you and to all who are gathered here on this very historic occasion. Please accept my appreciation. I thank you all. Thank you, Minister King. In the preliminary stages of the development of this solar farm, Lusleck has had the benefit of technical assistance from the Clinton Climate Initiative and the Rocky Mountain Institute. We are pleased, therefore, to have a member of the Board of Trustees for Rocky Mountain Institute and former President of Costa Rica, Mr. Jose Maria Figures, to make some remarks. Mr. Figures will also introduce our special guest, former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton. Buenas tardes, amigas y amigos. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Governor General Sir Neville Snack and Lady Snack, Prime Minister Alan Chastney and Madam Chastney. Buen amigo Presidente Clinton, bienvenido al Caribe nuevamente. Mr. Trevor Luzi, Managing Director of Lusneck, distinguished guests, amigas y amigos. On behalf of Carbon War Room and Rocky Mountain Institute, it brings me truly great joy, truly great joy to participate in this event, in this great inauguration with all of you here today. In Spanish, we say that el que no sabe de dónde viene no sabe para dónde va. He who does not know where he is coming from does not know where he is going. And so therefore, this afternoon, I would like to compliment what the former Prime Minister Kenny Anthony has mentioned as part of the history coming together for this momentous occasion. And then secondly, share with all of you what this project means to me in terms of the opportunities that it opens towards the future. Our Minister of Environment and Energy, Minister King, just mentioned the Rio Summit of 1992. Well, the history goes back to Rio Plus 20, which as you recall, was celebrated in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. At that opportunity, Prime Minister Mike Eamon of Aruba, and Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Carbon War Room, came together to launch what they called a Ten Island Challenge. The challenge was to work with islands in the Caribbean to bring them off from fossil fuels that were rendering very expensive energy and on to renewables because the Caribbean has sun, que dice gracias a Dios, and wind for renewable energies. St. Lucia was one of the first islands to step up to the challenge and say, here we are. We want to move forward. We want to begin a transition towards sustainable energy in our country. And so it was that with Minister Fletcher ever since 2013 and 2014, we began conversations to be able to be here today. Justin Locke from RMI was here and began conversations with two people in Lucenac that I would like to highlight and distinguish. They were Victor Emmanuel and Trevor Louisi that has accompanied this process from day one. Muchas gracias, Trevor. Very well done. Shortly after that, Carbon War Room and the Rocky Mountain Institute merged. We wanted to be able to do more things. And then we entered into a partnership with the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Climate Initiative, which are very nicely represented this afternoon by Kevin Thurm, the CEO of the foundation, and by Jesse Gerstin and Stephen Muschigan who have been leading up this effort in the Clinton Climate Initiative. Stephen, by the way, has been down to St. Lucia 16 times. I think Stephen, who is stand up, Stephen, stand up, stand up, stand up. I think he should be given honorary citizenship of St. Lucia. If they do that, I'll be next in line after you. Then with the financial help of the Dutch Postcode Lottery, which is a very strong friend of the Clinton Foundation and also of Rocky Mountain Institute, and with the support from the Global Environmental Facility GIF, as well as UNDP that helped us put the financial packages together, this project was underway. Absolute transparency, amigas y amigos. In international tender, Lucenek deserves a medal for the way in which it was conducted. Trevor mentioned 40 companies that came to visit the sites and hear what was to be done. Then that now was narrowed down to 11 bidders that came in with their office in the tenders. Three finalists were shortlisted and finally a winner, Grupo Tech, who I will refer to in just a minute. So as we can see, many have contributed to our being able to be here this afternoon and enjoy this momentous occasion. But I would like to signal out what I call three champions above and beyond all. First, it is to the people of St. Lucia. You know, back in 2014, Mark Grundy from Carbon War Room, who is here with us, visited St. Joseph's Girl School because they hold an annual event on sustainability and renewable energy. And there was a group of girls at St. Joseph's that had presented as a project, a small hydro to be able to take advantage of the water behind their high school. When Mark came back with that story, we said, this is a place to go. This is a place to help build as an example of what can be done in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Secondly, I would like to single out above and beyond all the role of Lucilik. Let's face it, it is not easy for a utility that has been accustomed all its life to fossil fuel generation to change the business model and begin to see the other side of this beautiful story. And Lucilik has done it, has done it artfully and is an example for the rest of the utilities in the Caribbean. And thirdly, to the government of St. Lucia. For its leadership, its determination. To you, Prime Minister Chesney, thank you so much, sir. But also what a wonderful lesson from St. Lucia for the rest of the world that lives in democracy to have two prime ministers, a prime minister, the former prime minister from two different political sides of life, side by side, speaking on the same podium, participating in the same activity supported by their both governments that brings development to St. Lucia. That is a type of democracy the world needs. So we at RMI and Rocky Mountain Institute stand ready to be by your side on the exciting steps ahead. Don Trevor, a las órdenes. Let's see where we can go from here. Second and lastly, to me, this represents a shining example of four things. First, it is a shining and no pun intended with this sun on the panels when I say shining. But it is a shining example of for the entire Caribbean. This is the largest solar project in the East Caribbean. It produces energy for 3,500 homes. And in that, it is not only an example for the Caribbean, but for regions above and beyond. It highlights the opportunities of the region to be able to transfer from energy costs that go between 33 and 67 cents per kilowatt hour to energy costs that are much lower based on renewables. Secondly, this is also the beginning of a journey, the beginning of a journey to cut carbon emissions, which is good for the planet. And to begin eventually to cut energy costs in St. Lucia when we have more renewables up and running, which is good for the people. So it's good for the people and it's good for the planet. Thirdly, it provides leadership for the world of how a small island nation, St. Lucia, still in many aspects developing as my country, can in fact move forward, show the road for other countries, small, medium, and large to follow in these footsteps and be able to combat climate change, which is the most impressive of all challenges humanity has ever faced, but is also the greatest economic opportunity as we are seeing here today. And fourthly and last, it is living proof of the efficacy of a public-private partnership. This project has involved the government of St. Lucia and Lucitec. It has involved business bidders and contractors, Grupo Tech, Javier Bela, muchas gracias por estar acá. It has involved civil society, RMI, the Clinton Global, the Clinton Climate Initiative of the Clinton Foundation, Dutch Postcode Lottery, and it has involved international organizations such as GEF and UNDP. Again, heartfelt recognition and deepest gratitude to all that have contributed to this momentous occasion. Y ahora, amigas y amigos. Now it is my distinctive pleasure to introduce a friend, the 42nd President of the United States, President William Jefferson Clinton. To us here, much more important than that, and with full respect for your tenure, sir, we would like to welcome and introduce a true friend of the Caribbean and a global statement, a global statesman that has always had in his heart the well-being of peoples around the world and the well-being of the planet. Señor Presidente. Thank you very much, President Figueros. Thank you for that introduction, for your wonderful work, and for saving me a lot of words. I should just say I agree with him and sit down. For many years now, he's been trying to get me to do exactly that. Governor General and Lady Snagg, Prime Minister, and Mrs. Chastney, thank you for the meeting we had and the work you're doing and the work I hope we will do in the future. Former Prime Minister and current Minister for Infrastructure, Sports, Energy, and Labor, King, thank you for your wonderful remarks and your work. Former Prime Minister and Representative Dr. Anthony, it's good to see you again. Thank you for welcoming me 15 years ago to this wonderful place. Dr. Fletcher, thank you, and Trevor Loisey, and John Joseph, and the others from Blue Select, thank you. Mark Grundy and the RMI Carbon War Room crowd, thank you for the chance to work with you. I feel like a guy who was speaking at the first banquet I spoke at. It was a Rotary Club banquet in 1977. I was a young official. I'd worked hard on my speech. The dinner began at six. I was introduced at nine. There had been eight previous speakers and 500 people in the audience had all been introduced except three. They went home angry and my introducer was so nervous. He was trying to give me a good introduction and he said, you know, we could stop now and have had a good evening. He meant to say the best is yet to come but most people thought, please do stop right now. I want to say what I think all of this means. This clearly makes St. Lucia a clean energy leader in the Caribbean. I applaud the government and previous governments and all the ministers here in Blue Select and I agree with everything that Jose Maria said. I think this should be seen as the beginning of a comprehensive, determined, unrelenting effort to make St. Lucia and all the island nations of the Caribbean stronger, safer and more sustainable. All this clean energy will only work if it can be protected. The sea levels are rising. The storms are growing in intensity. One of the reasons we have the support we have today for doing what needs to be done in clean energy is that we know what causes the sea levels to rise. One of the reasons it's going to be hard to continue the energy for doing the right thing if larger, wealthier countries and multinationals walk away is that every nation knows that alone we cannot do this. This is supposed to be an era of militant nationalism, our crowd against the world. I don't suppose it would be possible for any person to be prouder of or more benefited by being an American than me. You are, I hope, looking at the last American president who, as a child, lived in a place without indoor plumbing. It sounds so great as a campaign issue. It is overrated as a lifestyle, particularly if you come from where I do. In the winter, you freeze to death. In the summer, you have to watch out for the snakes. I grew up in a place where we had to learn the difference between a poisonous and a non-poisoned snake by age five to have a really good chance of growing up. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of my country. But I'm not proud when we pretend that we don't have obligations to others or we pretend that our destiny should be entirely in our own hands or we pretend that it's us against the world. We live in an interdependent world. Nobody caused climate change alone. Nobody is raising the sea levels alone, and no one will fix it alone. The same is true of global poverty and of all the rising conflicts. The truth is that the future lies in what I would call inclusive nationalism. Be proud of who you are and where you're from and what your roots are, and still know that diverse groups make better decisions than totally homogenous ones. If this project, the prospect, the result of two governments, as Jose Maria said, of different parties, and the utility and the government, and input from civil society groups and all the people that backed us, including the Norwegian Development Agency, what if they were also nationalists? They said it's cold up here. What do we care what happened in St. Lucia? Or the Dutch Postcode Lottery? They will only help the Dutch islands and the Caribbean. The Dutch Postcode Lottery just built the first completely carbon neutral, that is zero emissions building in the Netherlands for their headquarters. It is entirely funded by Dutch citizens most of you will never meet who buy little lottery tickets, and 100% of their profits go both to needs in the Netherlands and to people throughout the world. Why are they interested in financing me to help you? Because they know that we have a common future. And so what I ask you to do is to think about what this really means. You've done something good, remarkable, worthy in its own right. You know that you can do more. The Caribbean still has about the highest electric rates in the world. You have to work things out that are fair to a utility that is clearly willing to help you and has been built on a certain set of assumptions and the world has changed. It's now wind energies economical, solar energies economical. For all I know here geothermal energy may be economical, but you've had to figure out how to get from here to there. You will have to do that together. And at the same time as I have heard the Prime Minister say again today, you have to do it in a way that makes the island more resilient. Otherwise, all your gains can be lost in the blink of an eye. Maybe we'll get lucky this year. You deserve the luck after what the storms last year did to the Caribbean. Didn't do it to you, but what happened to Puerto Rico and St. Thomas to Domenico, Dominica, and to other places compromised your future too. We have to do this together. So I hope that today will be a day which we'll all be able to look back on with pride. Five years, 10 years, 15 years from now, because it was the beginning of something remarkable and enduring. I saw the Dominican Republic where I spent a lot of time the last 18 years starting an AIDS program and then helping with various economic initiatives. I saw them. I know it's a bigger country, but you can get the picture. They put up 90 megawatts of windmills and cut their power bills by 25%. And they did it working with the utility. In Panama, I've seen them put up 400 megawatts of wind power. And in the six months when the hydro power doesn't work, provide 40% of the power to Panama City in a way that cut the bills, not increase it. I have seen last year in your country, Mr. President in Costa Rica, for the first time for more than six months, the entire country operated its full economy with no carbon emissions, zero. And the per capita income of Costa Rica, for a lot of reasons, is roughly twice that of the other countries in Central America. I'd say that not to brag on Costa Rica, but to say we have to raise the others to that level. And energy and sustainability is a part of it. And you can't do one without the other. So thank you for allowing us to work. I want to thank all the team from the Clinton Foundation here today. You know now that I'm old, this is a great gig I'm on. They do all the work and I get to give a speech. Doesn't seem fair. But I have lived with this issue now for more than 40 years. In the late 1970s, when I was a young Attorney General, I tried to get my state to invest in energy efficiency instead of wasting more money on a power plant we didn't need. They thought I was crazy. Now they think I had foresight. We can't wait 40 years for everybody to wake up to that reality now. Think how we would feel if none of our children and grandchildren were able to live in much of the Caribbean because it was underwater. Think how we would feel if it started earlier because we couldn't insure places anymore. So no one would build a resort, or for me a tragedy, a golf course, because there was no insurability. And yet here at hand, we have the means to do this. In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, I had the honor to help find financing to rebuild some of the poorest parts of the United States. And I watched people, working people, move into homes that were affordable and simply through efficiency used so much less electricity that their rates were lower than they had been in more than a decade. It freed up money for the region to grow again. You can do that. You need the money you could get from having cheaper electricity to invest in your children's education, to invest in your infrastructure. And the utility needs that strategy because then they'll do just fine because there'll be more customers and more demand at lower costs. We have to do this together. So I leave you with that thought. I learned more last year from watching a movie called Black Panther. Do you see that movie? About the shape of the modern world then I did listening to all the politicians talk. A lot of people like Black Panther because it was the first American movie with an all-black cast that white people paid like crazy to go see. A lot of people liked it because there were so many women in strong roles. A lot of people liked it because it was a sci-fi thriller. A lot of people liked it, including me, because it proved that Africa was not full of countries described by certain adjectives that I hated because this African country had been blessed with a great resource and like a 22nd century Botswana had used the most of it to create a whole different world. I liked it because it was an African morality tale. It was an updated version of what Nelson Mandela lived and died for, the belief in inclusive tribalism. In that movie turned out the good guys were still the good guys at the end of the movie but no longer perfect. And it turned out the bad guy was still on the wrong side of the issue but not completely bad and in the end they decided to make the best of it and try to find some way to go forward together. That's what we all have to do. Caribbean can lead the world into building an inclusive 21st century prosperity. This region could be completely carbon-free. You still need utilities. What you've got to figure out is how to get off the fuel that's killing you and bankrupting you and generate it from the sun to wind, geothermal, biomass, and where possible hydro. And while you do that, you have to become more resilient. You can't reverse climate change with just clean energy. You can become insurable and you can grow and you can lose less in the storms. You can't turn back by having more reliance on clean energy and more reliance on resilience. That's what I want you to do. You took this step before most other people did. Lead the way to the future and we'll all follow waving our various flags together. Thank you and God bless you. Thank you President Clinton. Our final speaker this afternoon is our Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation, External Affairs, and the Public Service, Honorable Alan Shastney. Honorable Prime Minister, welcome to the podium, sir. Good afternoon. I'm not sure if everybody was clapping because I was the Prime Minister or because I was the last speaker. I'd like to probably think it was the former. Your Excellency, Sir Neville Snacken, Lady Snack, members of my cabinet, President Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States of America, Mr. Jose Maria Figueres, former President of Costa Rica, Benvenito a Sanducía. The Dr. Kenny Antony, Parliamentary Representative of View Fort North, sorry, South, and also former Prime Minister. Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries, Mr. John Joseph Chairman of the Board of the Directors of the St. Lucia Electricity Company Services, other board members, Mr. Trevor Louisi, Managing Director of the St. Lucia Electricity Services, other members in management of the team of the St. Lucia Electricity Services, members of the Clinton Foundation, especially invited guests, staff members of St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited, and members of the media. So great to have all of you here today. Let me first start off by saying that when the itinerary of the former President Bill Clinton arrived, it included a golf game. And I was so disappointed to hear that we cancelled the golf game and we kept it to just this meeting. I hopefully you didn't hear about my prowessness at golf and decided to change your mind, but let me once again extend a formal welcome to President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation team to our beautiful island. President first visited our island shortly after he left office with a local ballroom named in his remembrance and that special occasion. It's safe to say that solutions will not soon forget that visit in 2003. Our people still remember with fondness how the President made an unscheduled trip and visit to our castries market to mingle with the vendors and shoppers alike. Apart from the media attention the President attracted, the Clinton Foundation made a commitment at that time to infighting HIV AIDS and St. Lucia and the OECS as a whole. This was a time when our countries were experiencing problems of capacity and we lacked the human and financial resources to deal with HIV AIDS epidemic. The Clinton Foundation assisted by negotiating on behalf of the OECS for a reduction in the price of pharmaceuticals to treat HIV and providing technical assistance. They were critical to us being able to access funding and to provide free and low cost medicine to persons living with HIV AIDS. Were it not for the Clinton Foundation lobbying on our behalf we may have not been able to reduce the number of persons contracting the disease and for that we are deeply grateful to you, sir. Help to Dominica. Recently the President Clinton visited Dominica to view the reconstruction efforts after Hurricane Maria and the foundation announced its willingness to assist Dominica in rebuilding its efforts. I too have been to Dominica and I'm very disheartened at what has taken place in Dominica and I again once again applaud and publicly acknowledge the efforts of the government of Dominica in very difficult and trying times. But the Dominica lesson and the lessons of last summer, like what President Clinton spoke about, has left a resonating message to all of us. And that message is that we live in a very sensitive ecosystem, one in which Senlusha cannot do it by itself. Even if Senlusha were to have the most successful economic model we would only be limited by our own resources. The true benefit to us is when our region can forge ahead and everybody be able to benefit. It was amazing to me that when we went around and people talked about whether Senlusha had been impacted and while immediately one would say no but in fact we were. Many solutions who were living in Dominica or living in the BVI and working in the BVI, many of them who were living in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands in Puerto Rico and had been sending back remittances for years, ones which we were depending on. Our farmers who had markets in the Northern Islands, our cruise industry, because without Puerto Rico, none of the cruise ships that came from North America would be able to come to St. Lucia on a seven-day trip. The tourism industry in general, even though many of us perceive Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as being our competitors, the fact is the rest of the world think of us as one product, one destination. And so when people who heard of the level of devastation in the news, many of them felt that all of us had been impacted. So the fact is is that the world continues to see us as one, yet we continue to act as if we are just one. And I want to take up President Clinton on what he started, is that in order for us to be able to move forward and to solve this major crisis that we have, and clearly being here today is an effort on our part to be able to reduce emissions, to be more responsible citizens, and at the same time to economically make ourselves less dependent on fossil fuels. But climate change or the environment, climate global warming is having a devastating effect on us. And we're not going to resolve that problem by ourselves. This region has to unite. This region must come together with one singular voice in order to determine how we're going to move forward. The fact is that the odds are stacked up against us. The OECD continues to classify us as middle-income countries, and as a result of it, we don't have access to development funds. The protocols that most of the development agencies use reminds us every day that every project has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And because of the time they take to be able to disperse funds, it requires the corporation of both governments. And so I want to acknowledge and again thank the former government for the work that they did in starting this initiative and continuing some of the ideas and philosophies that were already begun. But it cannot be achieved by one party or one ideology by itself. And if that applies in solution, it also applies on a regional basis. The debt, we're not going to solve the problem of the debt crisis by ourselves. It is going to require us come together collectively. How we vote on a collective basis at the UN and other international agencies says everything about our determination to succeed. So as the lead prime minister for sustainable development, we have been working very closely with CARICOM and in particular the OECS about creating a common platform. Let us try to get that OECD can change how they classify us. Let us work on getting the protocols changed. But more importantly that this is global warming is something that we don't control. It's not within our destiny to be able to control. So even though we were to come 100% carbon neutral in our country, it's not going to change our destiny about global warming. So what it means is we have to adapt. And in adapting, we have to be able to take on investments that are critical to making that happen, but we have to do it within the constraints of what we are financially. And again, solution cannot resolve this problem by itself. It is going to take the collective effort of all of us to be able to make this thing work. And so we've been arguing with the World Bank and the IMF that loans that are going to be going towards resilience building and in terms of raising the level of our bridges, broadening the breadth of our rivers, slope stabilization, putting utilities under the ground, building dedicated centers for disaster relief. None of those things are going to contribute to the economic growth of our country. None of them. But if we have to borrow the funds through the traditional resources, it's going to reduce our ability to put money into healthcare, reduce our ability to put money into education and into our basic infrastructures because the country has been running a deficit. And the solution is better than most. In some other countries, the debt to GDP are in excess of 100%. The amount of money they're paying towards interest payments are in excess of what they pay in wages. So there is no space to be able to borrow the money to be able to fix this problem. And President Clinton spoke about it, and I hope that we appreciate what he was saying, that without insurance there is no viability. So if in fact insurance companies deem this region to be uninsurable, there are dramatic consequences to that, meaning that solutions, people from CARICOM and international people will not invest money in our region. This is again something in which St. Lucia cannot fight by itself. But President Clinton also spoke about the level of nationalism that's taking a place across the world. We know we've been down that road that that doesn't work. So how are we going to solve that problem? The fact is that we must take a leadership role and determining for ourselves what we need to do. We need to literally put this thing on a silver platter to make it almost impossible for the donor agencies not want to participate. Instead of thinking that they don't want to help, we must recognize that they are preoccupied with other things. And we must make ourselves that priority. Otherwise, we're not going to succeed in moving forward. I recap those events that to say that Mr. President, that you continue to be a friend of the small islands in the Caribbean. And today here we are once again grateful for the technical assistance your foundation has provided to St. Lucia Electricity Services for this solar farm we are officially opening. Susanna Locke said, and I quote, the sun that power the plant in the sky baves earth in ample energy to fulfill all the world's power needs many times over. It doesn't give off carbon dioxide emissions. It won't run out and it's free. I know we're still working on the free part. However, we must recognize that today's opening is a major step in the right direction of our country. I congratulate the board and the management of Lussek, the contractors, Grupo Tech, Rocky Mountain Institute and Global Energy and Engineering Advisory firm DNVGL for this project which we will all anticipate will help to change our energy landscape. As I mentioned in the budget, my budget earlier this year, among the key areas of focus for this administration are building capacity in renewable energy and adapting to climate change. Many people may not understand the order of priority, but that 60% of our foreign exchange goes towards purchasing petroleum products. 60%. So think of having all those that money rather than being in reserve at the central bank actually being in circulation in our economy, what the impact would be. Our price reliability. With renewable energy, we don't have to concern ourselves anymore about what the price of oil is. In fact, we can take that app off. It's something I have to look at every single morning as to what's happening to the price of oil because it has such a large implication in terms of our future in our economy. Cost efficiency. We know and we're seeing that the technology is getting better and better. So every single year, the technology that we're using for renewable energies is improving in efficiency and therefore then reducing our cost. But clearly, one of the things that we're contemplating and which is going to require the support of the opposition of civil society of everybody is going to be electrical vehicles. If in fact, we're going to become 100% dependent on renewable energy, how does it make any sense to continue to import fossil fuels to provide energy to our vehicles? Are solutions ready for this change? But the fact is if we want to make a dent in the world and recognizing how the world is going, the change must start here at home in order to give ourselves that level of independence. I'm very pleased that we are also on the plans for utilizing our geothermal resources. And following a pre-feasibility study for the geothermal project, the draft environmental and social impact assessment ESIA report for the drilling sites, we're working on the legislative and regulatory framework for introducing and integrating renewable energy into the domestic power system. This is something that started back in the 80s. I remember when I was an economist in the Ministry of Planning in 1984 to 1987, Mr. Lubin was the head of the program. So adapting to climate change, challenges for the small island states and limited natural resources, building resilience and implementing sustainable goals are all the challenges that we have to face, but recognize that our own future requires that we take this seriously, not only here in Celusia, but at the OECS and at the CARICOM level. In closing, I know that this renewable energy project will be a great success and it represents a new promise and a new model that I hope to see replicated in the future. Remain very optimistic about the future of the development of the electrical sector. As a government, we are committed to projects such as these which are key to facing climate challenges. We would like to thank all the different parties and partners in this project who worked tirelessly, not only to complete the project you deserve, but you all deserve a round of applause. Let me remind us that every project has a beginning, every project has a middle, every project has an end, and therefore it requires all of us to cooperate on a continual basis for the benefit of all solutions. So I thank you. Thank you, Honourable Prime Minister. It is now time to cut the ribbon and officially open the Lusilec 3 megawatt solar farm. We invite the members of the media to please take up your positions at the ribbon cutting area. The ribbon cutting will be done by Governor General, his Excellency Sir Emmanuel Neville-Snack. He will be accompanied by Prime Minister Honourable Alan Shastney, President William Jefferson Clinton, Minister for Infrastructure, Ports Energy and Labor Honourable Stevenson King, Lusilec Chairman Mr. John Joseph, Lusilec Managing Director Mr. Trevor Luisi, RMI Board of Trustees member Mr. Jose Maria Figures and the Deputy Resident Representative in the UNDP office for Barbados and the OECS Mr. Chisa Mikami. Will the ribbon cutting party take the positions? Invited guests will remain seated. After the ribbon cutting, the party will take a brief tour of the solar farm, following which President Clinton will make his exit to fly out to another engagement in the US Virgin Islands. Immediately following, other groups interested in touring the solar farm will be accommodated as we enjoy some refreshments and more great music from Ronald Buhingsen and Alison Markey. Please note that the solar farm is an industrial site and you should exercise every caution as you walk and please do not stray away from the touring party. So on behalf of the Lusilec Board of Directors, our Managing Director Mr. Trevor Luisi, the entire management team and the staff of Lusilec, we thank you for your attendance and attention and bid you a good afternoon.