Gov’t to Develop National Policy on Emissions

Cabinet has given instructions for an inter-ministerial committee to move speedily to develop a national policy on emissions.

Prime Minister, the Most. Hon. Andrew Holness, said he has advised that a draft of the policy is to be completed and presented to Parliament within three months.

He said it should be ready for the legislative process, if necessary, by the end of this year.

Mr. Holness, who was addressing a meeting with members of the diplomatic corps at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Tuesday (Feb. 7), said the move is in response to concerns about poor air quality in some areas of the Corporate Area and St. Catherine.

“I think Jamaica is developing a deep culture towards sustainable development and the Government is in the forefront of that in many respects,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, informed that Jamaica is expected to ratify the Paris Agreement within this quarter. “I am hoping there will be no delays,” she said.

“The issue has been ensuring that we put in place the national framework, the domestic changes to legislation and monitoring and that will allow us when we ratify, to implement,” she said.

The Paris Agreement seeks to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Agreement was entered into force in October 2016 when it was ratified by 129 of the197 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).