 Hello and welcome to another program, Issues and Answers. The World Consumer Rights Day is globally recognized and accredited by the United Nations. On Wednesday 15th March 2023, St. Lucia will observe World Consumer Rights Day by joining with global consumer organizations, advocates, international organizations and others in a united call to empower consumers through clean energy transitions. To provide the answers, we have in studio Mr. Shuman Francis and he is the Acting Energy Officer and he will give us a little more information in the later. We have Mr. Marcio Marciano-Busby and he is the Head of Communications at the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards. We have Ms. Wendy Frederick, the Deputy Director Acting Consumer Affairs in the Ministry of Commerce and Mr. Ulampius Frederick and he is the Acting Sustainable Development and Energy Officer. I got that right? Environment Officer. So, tell us a little more about yourselves and what you do. Ulampius, since I got your name, your title incorrect, tell me a little more about yourself. Okay, I am Acting Sustainable Development and Environment Officer and basically the Department of Sustainable Development is the climate change focal point for St. Lucia and with that the Department is responsible for communicating to the United Nations framework convention on climate change our country's efforts towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. So in short, St. Lucia submitted an updated nationally determined contribution and that is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector by 7% compared to what we emitted in 2010. So by the year 2030, we are expecting to have emissions at 468 gigagrams of carbon dioxide equivalent. Now, I know everybody must be thinking clean energy but you have to have it in perspective. What is, what are you already talking about? So before we get there, I'll give you a chance for me to introduce your energy officer who's bursting because he wants to jump in on that discussion. So Sherman, tell us about yourself, tell us about what you do and need about it. Okay, as I said the name is Sherman Francis, I am attached to the renewable energy division of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ports, Transport, Physical Development and Urban Renewal. Well, energy officers, we do a lot but I'll just do a quick summary. So we are at the, on the policy side, we resummel for energy in St. Lucia. So we'll put measures in place to ensure that there's proper uptake of energy. You have a use of sustainable energy, we do energy monitoring and we put measures in place to encourage people to adapt clean and renewable energy. That's excellent. Now, I know Bureau of Standards is the watchdog for all those things and they set standards. So Budgie, tell me a little bit more about what you, what you do and your role. Well, as you know, the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards has its mission to protect consumers and the environment and St. Lucia is our biggest consumer, you know, and the island itself needs, needs sustainable methods of moving forward into the future because fossil fuel carbon emissions, that is not sustainable and the price of fuel keeps rising. So the importance of using our environment itself to generate clean renewable energies is something that it is tantamount to our future and the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards took the first step in adopting and writing standards for energy, for renewable energy and energy efficiency. So that's why we collaborate with a lot of the other ministries in that regard. Excellent, excellent. And with standards, I know it affects the business community, it affects our consumers, which the Consumer Affairs Division has a keen interest in. So Wendy, tell us about yourself, tell us about your role and others. What is this particular topic, how is it connected to you? Okay. Well, as you mentioned earlier, Wendy Federick, the Acting Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs Department, basically, as the name says, we're responsible for consumers, consumer protection, ensuring that consumers are educated, they have the ability to redress. Generally, so what we're just here to ensure that consumers are treated fairly and especially now with this topic for World Consumerized Day, as it says, empowering consumers to clean energy transition. And that's why we're here with sustainable and energy and Bureau of Standards. So with the rise, the increase in prices, as you saw with COVID, after the COVID-19 crisis, with the price increase, many consumers are now looking to cut costs and save on the energy bills and all of that. So this is why this topic was chosen to empower consumers to understand that there are alternatives to assist in cutting the energy bills and to live more comfortably, I should say. So that's one of our main reasons for choosing this theme. And it was chosen by consumers international, because this theme is being used internationally, globally, I should say, around the world, because we all recognize it around the World Consumerized Day, which is actually the 15th of March every year. Now, this is one consumer that is interested in this topic, because I've been trying to lower my energy consumption. It doesn't seem to be working effectively for me. So I hope the experts here and you are on this discussion, we're going to guide myself and consumers like myself. So what impact will the transition of clean energy have on consumers and the environment? Who wants to go? Who wants to take that? Lumpers, I think you look my way first. The most important thing is energy efficiency. And so your clean energy is making use of energy sources that will not have a deleterious impact on the climate system. So you're looking to other sources of energy like your solar wind geothermal, but for the important point of not having a negative impact on your climate. So when you have energy efficiency, then it will also have an impact on the price you pay for your energy use, which is what our consumer affairs division is interested in. When you basically have efficiency for your cooling, you know, say there's a very hot country, so we have a lot of air conditioning. We need our refrigerators. We need our deep freeze appliances. We want to be able to use coolants that would give us the maximum efficiency as possible. So this is where it's important for consumers. Now, can I jump in now? Even as he mentioned the prices, I think you mentioned that, right? A lot of people are saying, yes, we're telling them to turn to clean energy, you know, and it's quite costly. But if you think about it, it's actually an investment in the long run. But I've heard this investment thing, but it is the cost because 30,000 plus to do it. So tell me how I could really because I've heard this arguments for years. We've been hearing it. So now that we're here, tell me how you think it is really going to impact with the whole investment that you've made. OK, but before you go there and that's part of our well consumerized day activities, we're actually going to have a financial symposium. So where we're going to have like the Central Development Bank, who will be there as well, because they have they provide small loans. I think I don't want to go into details because I don't really have options here. Right. So the bankers and so we're going to have this financial symposium where we can let the consumers know what's available to them in being able to access these things at affordable cost. Because, yes, it's costly when you do the first investment. OK, how do we get it? We also have, for example, concessions available. And even at the exhibition, you'll you'll get more information on that, which will be at the Constitution Park. So we'll get more of that as well. So concessions available to be able to import duty free for solors and stuff like that. So I know it sounds like, yes, returning you all to turn to clean energy transitions, but and then it sounds expensive. So this is why we're here to be able to educate and empower on the availability of investing so that they can now in the long term reduce their costs. But why do you want to respond? But answer this question as well in your response. Is there any truth to the whole concept of clean energy, green energy? Because research also shows that it also adds another little to your environment that you because you have to do so much batteries and how you dispose of it, they could also be another effect. Is there such a thing as clean energy? Well, yes, there is such a thing. And we've and one thing about human beings is a lot of times we are resistant to change and change when there's such a thing as change management. So when it is managed properly, then it is it can be very beneficial to you. Do you prefer to continue? Was this if you can spend twenty five dollars today? And in the next five years, you don't have to spend that twenty five dollars. Is another good thing? It's the same way with energy. Look, we have the one Ukraine, which is impacting on the import price of oil and fossil fuels. This should be the clarion called that something needs to change, you know, because today the price is going up. Cooking gas is like forty three dollars. Five years down the line, what if the price is eighty dollars now? What will people be saying? As opposed to if we take the time now to investigate and research other ventures, other avenues of of of of gaining energy, for example, biomass, you know, you can. Using animal animal byproducts and stuff to use as fuel. If you are a farmer, you have animals, you have all the byproduct. You take that, you put that in your systems and you use that as fuel for whatever for whatever activities you need. You know, that is actually something that can be investigated. There's seaweed also, you know, there are in America, they're using corn and ethanol, you know, these are actually other avenues, other methods of gaining and using energy. And these are things that are naturally occurring in the environment. And it is not as expensive as oil. The initial cost of putting of putting investment in the initial investment might seem like, oh, this is so much. But in the long run, you're going to be getting that money and, you know, getting get ripping the benefits. So you're mentioning something there that almost seems like a sustainable way of for us to be able to provide and supply our energy, especially referencing the Ukraine war. So energy independence has been a term that's been banded around. And I'm sure to you, Sherman. So in terms of energy independence, what is meant by that? First of all, energy independence and can Saint Lucia ever possibly attain? And I know we have the geothermal project going on. So speak to that in terms of your ministry and how you're approaching. OK, but let me just beg you to just add to what you're saying. OK, so everybody will not be able to afford beefy. We can say that definitely because the price is a bit high, but we can see trends on the market that the prices are going down. There's new technologies coming on, even in the batteries. Prices of batteries will be going down very, very quickly as well. But in terms of energy, there are some measures you can take even before you put in your renewable energy, energy conservation. You don't need to use appliances. So you conserve there and then you do energy efficiency. Again, you reduce in your consumption and then you use your renewable energy to be like the umbrella over this. So you have conserved, you are efficient in your energy use, then you most probably will need less energy to realm it on its own. And you cover that with your renewable energy. So that's the model that we usually boost. In terms of energy independence, as Masiyan was saying, the war in Ukraine has done a lot of things to us. We saw the fluctuation in the prices of fuel. If we can get energy that is indigenous to us, wind, solar, geothermal, indigenous to Central Asia. Yes, the other places have it too, but we are abundant in these resources. We can develop and get our own energy, produce our own energy, use it in-house and we don't have to think of the degrees of what's happening around us and that will not really affect us that much. If we are able to be sustainable by our own use of our energy. Excellent. So before we go to another question, we'll go first, take a break. But when we come back, we're going to discuss a little bit more about what's going to happen on the 15th. But also we have hybrids vehicles around. We have a lot of electric vehicles. I know that we have standards for those items. So BUSB would probably have to sell us whether the standards are bringing it in. Now almost every vehicle is a hybrid and now we're moving into electric. But are we ready for it? What needs to be in place? We'll be back in a moment with our discussion on World Consumer Consumer Rights Day. Thank you very much. See you on the other side. Come join us at the Constitution Park in Castries on Wednesday, March 15th for the Clean Energy Expo. Celebrating World Consumer Rights Day 2023 under the theme Empowering consumers through clean energy transitions. Get information, win prizes, giveaways and get deals on energy saving devices and much more. Empowering consumers through clean energy transitions. This message is brought to you by the Ministry of Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Corporatives and Consumer Affairs, National Consumer Association, Department of Sustainable Development and Solution Bureau of Standards. Hello and welcome. Welcome back to our discussion issues and answers. We're discussing World Consumer Rights Day and how to a call to empower consumers through clean energy transitions. So, Olympus, I want to put you straight out there and indicate, for you to indicate to us, how do we make this transition to clean energy? As we said for years, people have been indicating that this is where we need to go. But in St. Lucia, what is happening? How can we move that way? And I know, Shilman, you also mentioned that there's legislation. So what is in place in terms of infrastructure to encourage that transition? OK, well, St. Lucia's nationally determined contribution is mitigation centric, meaning that we have decided to put in place various mitigation activities so that we can achieve our target of seven percent reduction. And the government of St. Lucia has basically decided to focus our greenhouse gas emissions reduction in three main sectors. That's your energy sector, your transportation sector and also your electricity generation sector. And those things do require a policy and legislative framework, which is mainly falling under the mandate of the renewable energy unit. So I want to reflect to my colleague where he will be able to speak more on those instruments. OK, so definitely we know that there is an initial transition. However, we cannot do the transition in an ad hoc way. There should be a set guidelines that will guide us into doing this transition. We need to ensure that there is still economic and social benefits that can be maintained, even while we transition. We also need to ensure that the wealth is created while we transition. And we can only do this by including all stakeholders. It can be just an energy thing or just a sustainable thing. It has to be all stakeholders, St. Lucia and the whole. In so doing, we need to strengthen our policy and legislative framework. Put laws in place, put measures in place that will guide us into into getting our transition going. We also need to incentivize renewable energy and that I'll give a little bit more on this. In terms of renewable energy products, like you mentioned a while ago, right now it doesn't attract any custom duties. So we bring a system to the good incentives on. Yep. So we have incentive. We are working further to reduce or remove the vat from the systems. So definitely the price will be going down. And hopefully the installers or the supplies can pass it on to the consumers, so you pay less for your system. We need to strengthen our institutions. We have the NUC, NERC, the National Utilities Regulatory Commission. If this is if they are strengthened, then they can sort of they would be responsible for renewable energy uptake in St. Lucia. So they can guide and channel us into getting this done efficiently and appropriately. St. Lucia, we are also working on what you call the IRRP integrated resource resilience plan. With this, we'll take a look into the future and decide what will we need in terms of our energy mix. Would we need geothermal, wind, battery at what stages do we put this in? And generation or procurement of this generation will be done solely for the next year. So they will look at the IRRP, which will be endorsed by St. Lucia and look at the mix that is that can bring the most financial benefits to us. And these can be adopted and taken. Yes, that's excellent. But I know you raised the chime in on that because my question for you is now that incentives are going to be part of this in a bigger way. That means that we'll have the proliferation of hybrid technology and others standards. How do we regulate that sector? What is it in the plan? Well, I'm not a regulator, so I don't actually speak towards regulation. It's up to the standards that it will be. However, for example, we do have. We have the Bureau has a plethora of standard of standards dealing with both energy efficiency and renewable energy. But also. As a national standard body, we are also part of the Caribbean Regional Organization for standards and quality, which is cross queue. It is so it is like all standards body in within the Caribbean. We came together and there's this one body that we are all part of. And the Caribbean Regional Energy Efficiency Building Code was rolled out and St Lucia adopted it in 2019, in which they. It is designed specifically to meet the needs of Caribbean countries and other tropical environment, other countries with a tropical environment. It establishes minimum energy requirements for buildings using prescriptive performance related provisions. So from building, enveloping, cooling systems, ventilation, pumping, lighting, all these measures in a way to build in an efficient manner. So instead of having an exorbitant air conditioning be an exorbitant electricity built from running your air conditioning all day, there are ways to build in which you utilize the Caribbean, the breeze, you know, cool down your entire building. There are ways to build that the breeze goes through your building and it is as cool as if you were running an air conditioning unit. You know, so hopefully we are hoping we will we will we're trying to meet with different institutions, even for example, the banks so that if you're taking a loan to build that the bank will say, well, OK, if you're using the Caribbean. The particular standard, yes, you probably might have a lower interest rate or something, you know, because incentives have to be tied in in order for persons to respond to it. Yes. And so it also impacts the business sector because the business sector cries the most when it comes to energy. And I think that's where the competitive competitive advantage is being lost because our energy consumption is way out out there. So tell us a little more about what is going to happen when the interns of consumer consumer rights. They what is it that the department would be focused on so that persons and would pick their interests as to, hey, I need to listen to this, I need to be able to apply some of the things that are being said right here into my business mix. OK, so and that's why we've partnered or with our agencies, key stakeholders, key stakeholders, sustainable development, infrastructure, standard, so because they're more into knowing about the different available, sustainable energy options. So with all of that, we and again, this whole theme is twofold to help consumers cut costs, of course. And as Mr. Frederick said, for climate protection of the climate. And so it's it's key to helping the environment as well as helping the consumers. So this year, we have the symposium, the Expo in the Expo in the Constitution Park, where we'll have the different businesses showcasing the different available, sustainable energy equipment, LED lights, whatever it is, if it's solar panels. So they'll be showcasing and showing what is available. We also have, we'll be going to Sofrare and Viewfort, where we'll also have that Expo there. Excuse me, telling persons about the LED lights and other energy saving equipment that's available. We also have on the 17th, we're going to have what we call a chiffonet day. So yeah, it's a no iron day. So we're telling people, leave your home without ironing. So you don't need to iron. Let's see how we can cut costs. So I mean, I think it's not bad. But sometimes you put it on and then by the time you leave home, it looks iron, but we will have that day where we'll ask persons to leave home without ironing. We also have available, we'll be... What else is there? We have schools, we work with the schools as well. So we'll be going to the different schools. Yeah, the right to educate them and to empower them to help them understand what's available to them. We want to have actually a competition, an essay competition on the theme for empowering consumers through clean energy transition. So we want to do it at the school level. So we have several things and it's not just on March 15th, but we want to do it throughout the year until next year when we have our other themes. So we have different things in store. And so we really want persons to come out to the Constitution Park and support and support and they will see what's available and especially also with the financial symposium, which will be between either April or May. So they can know what's available and how they can afford it. Excellent, and this particular discussion is why it's 85 persons about what is happening. Now, I believe you're not generally having a lady. We're having so much fun that the time is quickly approaching. So we'll start from the end and come across. So tell us your closing remarks. What would you like to leave based on the theme and your department and how it is that this energy, clean energy transition will make sense and will work for Saint Lucia? So definitely we have agreed that we need the energy transition that's moving from fossil fuel based industry to one that is renewable or one that is carbon zero. The world has targeted the year 2050 for this. In Saint Lucia's context, we need to practice our energy conservation, energy efficiency. And then we do renewable energy and that will help save in terms of manufacturing. We know a lot of the costs would be in terms of energy. That's one of the components. So if they have low energy prices, prices can be transferred to us. We should get more prices on our goods and services. Sounds like you're saying we need energy discipline before we move to renewable energy. Yes. Olympus. OK, well, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is going to allow the ozone layer to repair itself. And that is going to curtail the negative impacts on climate change, which is usually blamed for the erratic weather conditions, more intense storms, which leads to environmental loss and damage, which has, which can be translated into costs towards consumers, the housing sector, different things like that. So it's very important for us to take a look at the clean energy transition initiative from that environmental perspective. Climate change is a real big topic. And it means that all the impacts that we see in the effects could be related to our energy consumption as well. But do you have 30 seconds? Well, I would like to implore solutions, you know, to. To well, to come down to well, Constitution Park, you know, on the 15th of March, we will be having this this exhibition and it shows various forms of energy, efficient appliances and things you could probably you do and use now to just curb some of your energy consumption, you know, techniques you could use to bring your bill down a little bit and looking forward into the future places we could go, methods we could use to to to enhance our way of living while also getting more renewable sources of energy. And also strengthening the environment, allowing the ozone to to heal up, reduce our carbon footprint. Excellent. And Wendy, you have 20 seconds. But between 40. I know, right? Well, just to echo what he said, come down to the Constitution Park. And of course, the Consumer Affairs Department is here to we open open to, you know, if you have any suggestions, whatever, feel free to call because we're here to address the consumer needs. Just empower, educate, right, and protect. So we're here for that for the consumer. So feel free also to call the department and and and we're free and open to hear your suggestions. And again, we encourage you to participate in our activities and come down to the Constitution Park and participate in our shift on a day as well. Thank you for the great advocate for consumers and consumer rights. So thank you for for viewing this episode of issues and answers where we're discussing empowering consumers through clean energy transitions. The theme for World Consumer Rights Day observed annually on the 15th of March. See you again and join us again for another discussion at a later date.