Environmental Protection Levy to Help Fund Jamaica’s Climate Resilience

Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, says the revised Environmental Protection Levy (EPL) will serve as a vital mechanism in funding Jamaica’s enhanced climate resilience amid environmental vulnerabilities.

She was speaking in the Upper House on Friday (Sept. 25) as she piloted the Environmental Protection Levy (EPL) Act.

The legislation, which was passed, is intended to mitigate negative impacts on the environment arising from the consumption, use and disposal of imported and locally manufactured goods.

The resources generated by the EPL support the work of agencies involved in environmental protection, including the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), Water Resources Authority (WRA), and the Forestry Department.

Senator Morris Dixon said that the main principle behind the legislation is that the goods concerned have consequences for the physical environment, and the Government requires resources to respond to those impacts.

“This piece of legislation also sits as part of the broader question of how Jamaica finances environmental protection, climate resilience and the public institutions charged with protecting our natural assets,” she noted.

She pointed out that the nation is contending with pollution, degradation of natural resources, watershed management, the protection of forests, coastal vulnerability and the increasing costs associated with climate-related events.

“If we fail to invest in resilience and environmental management today, that cost does not disappear. The cost of failure is borne elsewhere, in damaged infrastructure, degraded communities, increased disaster vulnerability, and additional expenditure by the Government later,” she said.

Noting that Hurricane Melissa wiped out almost 50 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), Senator Morris Dixon said that the need to protect the environment is not an abstract concern, as Jamaica’s natural resources support communities, the economy and way of life.

The Act increases the EPL rate from 0.5 per cent to 0.85 per cent, effective October 1, 2026, and gives retroactive effect to the imposition of the EPL, initially imposed on imported items and, thereafter, on manufactured goods via the Provisional Collection of Tax Act, from 2007 to present.

There will be no retroactive imposition of penalties, therefore, no civil or criminal penalties for failure to pay the levy will be imposed prior to October 1, 2026.

Senator Morris Dixon pointed out that the levy was introduced in 2007 and the regime was further updated in 2015.

“While those 2015 changes broadened the application of the levy, permanent standalone legislation governing the EPL was not enacted at that time. It is that legislative framework that this bill now provides,” she said.