The Mia Mottley administration on Tuesday launched a request for qualifications for a proposed wind project, with the prime minister urging potential developers and the wider public to treat the initiative as a decisive step in Barbados’ transition to clean energy and its drive to strengthen national resilience.
As the Lamberts and Castle Wind Project was launched at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Mottley warned that Barbados can no longer afford hesitation in its shift to renewable energy, declaring that the country’s future resilience depends on rapid, decisive action to secure its energy independence and adapt to the realities of climate change.
Renewable energy remains central to the government’s long‑term strategy, she said, noting that advancements in research now make it possible “to envisage a future that can potentially accommodate as much renewable energy as we can do”, while also pursuing cleaner transitional options.
But she stressed that Barbados must take a “judicious blend” of approaches to maintain stability in the electricity grid as the country shifts away from fossil fuels.
“We’ve been very clear that we see the majority of our electricity being generated from renewable energy,” she said. “But we accept that natural gas or methanol may have to be a bridging fuel in order to provide the stability that is necessary.”
Mottley cautioned that the country no longer has “the luxury of taking ten years, 20 years, 30 years, or 40 years on any initiative” related to energy security, referring to the escalating risks associated with climate change. Complex and difficult decisions, she warned, will be unavoidable.
“As a nation, we must come to grips with the reality that we will face complex and difficult decisions,” she said. “Decisions that alter the status quo will mean adjustment on the part of different spheres of people.”
Pointing to Sunday night’s devastating floods that claimed the life of a man at Charles Rowe Bridge, St George, Mottley said climate impacts are no longer abstract projections but lived realities.
“Water moving at the force at which it moved on Sunday evening… these things are not speculative, they are real,” she declared.
Quoting former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, she noted that fear has become one of the biggest obstacles to necessary change in the green energy space. “We have nothing to fear, other than ourselves. Because fear is a powerful emotion that paralyses,” she said. “If we don’t keep going, others will leapfrog us or leave us to the side, or circumstances will take us.”
The prime minister emphasised that adapting to a new climate reality is not solely the responsibility of governments or policymakers. Behavioural change must occur at the level of every citizen.
“We are living in a world where the unexpected is the norm,” she said. “It means behaviour must be adapted not just at the level of government, but at the level of individual households, people making sure that around their house, you clean the things and remove the things that can be missiles.”
Mottley said this message became even clearer during her visit to Jamaica on Monday with fellow CARICOM leaders in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. With the world now largely acknowledging the global climate emergency, even among those who claim to doubt it, she argued that the next step is ensuring households fully understand their own role in building resilience.
“We will not win this battle globally, regionally, or nationally until every household, every child, everyone is now recognising that they have to do something to make themselves more resilient,” she said.
(SB)
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