Letter of the Day | Hoping environmental promises made will be kept, this time

THE EDITOR, Madam:

On January 19, Senator Matthew Samuda, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, gave his State of the Nation address. His address included several promises which had been made before. Among them are a few that the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) has been advocating for over many years, including:

• The amendment of the Air Quality Regulations – The NRCA (Air Quality Regulations, 2006) and the NRCA (Ambient Air Quality Standards) Regulations, 1996 provide the framework for regulating air emissions from major and significant point sources. They are, however, inadequate, as they do not include smaller dust particles (PM2.5) although the dangers posed by these smaller particles have been well known since the early 1980s.

• The promulgation of the Environmental Impact Assessment regulations – Promises for EIA regulations have been made since 2011. In fact, JET was invited and submitted comments outlining what should be included in the regulations that same year. Under the Open Government Partnership, the Government of Jamaica committed to completing the regulations by 2023, but this was not accomplished. The new deadline is December 2025.

• Increase in fines under the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) and the Wild Life Protection Act – These are our two main environmental laws. The fines, however, are so low (up to J$50,000 and J$100,000, respectively) that they have little or no impact on behaviour. Recent promises to increase the fines were made in 2021 and again in December 2022.

Hopefully, these most recent promises will be fulfilled before the end of the next financial year to finally demonstrate the Government of Jamaica’s seriousness about protection of the environment.

JAMAICA ENVIRONMENT

TRUST