Focus on Consumers March 15

The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC), will be participating in the international observation of World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD), on March 15 under the theme: ‘Energy: Sustainable Access for All Consumers’.
Speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’ yesterday (March 8), Communications Specialist at the CAC, Dorothy Campbell said that the annual observance of World Consumer Rights Day, “seeks to highlight the rights of consumers and lobby support for those rights to be respected and protected”.
“Importantly also, the celebration.provides a forum for exposing the market abuses and social injustices which undermine those rights,” she added.
Miss Campbell pointed out that the CAC’s role for World Consumer Rights Day, “is to represent the interests of consumers in the campaign for behavioural change and social responsibility towards energy conservation, environmental security and a brighter future”.
She pointed out that the theme highlights the issue of availability and affordability, elements that form part of a criterion identified by the United Nations (UN), which was an indicator of poverty in a country. She said that according to the UN, nearly two billion persons worldwide are without access to electricity.
“Access to electricity is basic to alleviating poverty and improving the lives of all consumers,” she asserted, adding that, “access to affordable and safe forms of energy is therefore vital to the development of the entire nation”. She defined energy as heat, light and electricity.
She maintained that although access to sustainable alternative energy sources was a major challenge for Jamaica, since 90 per cent of its energy inputs are imported, the Ministry was spearheading a number of exploratory forms of renewable energy.
Miss Campbell affirmed that the Consumer Affairs Commission would play its part to inform and encourage all consumers to conserve energy in all spheres of their daily lives – at home, in the car, in the office – to promote sound environmental habits from the kitchen to the flower garden; and from the auto mechanic to the hillside farmer.
To observe World Consumer Rights Day, the Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology (with Energy), Phillip Paulwell as well as Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman, will address a media breakfast at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel beginning at 7:30 a.m.
The Ministers will speak on the global perspective, national strategies, achievements and challenges facing Jamaica in its current explorations toward providing safe, environmentally secure sources of alternative energy.
The Consumer Affairs Commission is an agency of the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology.