Introduction
Climate change has been a massive factor in the different social-economic activities in other areas of jurisdiction. For instance, climate change is a huge factor in determining agricultural activities in the rural areas and urban planning in significant towns and cities of a given region. Therefore due to climate change in most of the Caribbean countries such as of the world such as Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Costa Rica as well as countries such as Puerto Rico, these regions have taken direct and deliberate measures to curb the effect of such happenings on the residents of these regions. Predictions of future climatic trends in those regions have also played a significant role in the planning to minimize the effects of climatic changes on its population (Frauts, Meaghan, et al(2019): 391-413). This article talks about Kingston, which is the capital city of Jamaica. The city is characterized by extensive infrastructure and a higher population. Hence, climate change has a significant impact on the water supply, energy demand, and the transport and health systems of the city. The paper will thus articulate the effects of climatic changes on the city’s energy demands and why climate justice Is necessary for climate justice.
The History and culture of Kingston, Jamaica
Jamaica is one of the Caribbean countries that covers an area of about 4340 square miles. This makes the country the third-largest country in the Greater Antilles and the fourth largest of all the Caribbean nations. Politically, the country’s closest neighbors include Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. As of 2022, Jamaica has an estimated 3 million inhabitants, making it the third most Anglophone nation in the Americas after the United States and Canada. The country has its capital City at the City of Kingston. Kingston is regarded as the country’s largest city, with an estimated population of 740 300 inhabitants.
Like the rest of Jamaica, Kingston is one area in Jamaica that is characterized by tropical with humid and hot weather. The city is located on the southeastern Coast of Jamaica, and for this reason, it enjoys hot cool summers that attract tourists. The city has existed since the 17th century and has served as the country’s leading shipping and commerce center in Jamaica and the entire Caribbean Sea. The city of Kingston is usually recognized as a city with exotic culture. It is a community rich in arts, culture, and heritage that benefits the residents and entire of Jamaica. It is regarded as an attractive center for tourists (Lundy, Patricia, 2018). Facilities and programs, policies run the city, and strategies that ensure that the city is nature’s, remains sustainable, and that the diversity of cultural elements that enrich the life of the residents is preserved. With the fact that Kingston is located on the Coast, tourism has always proven to be one of the city’s main economic activities and functions. The coral reef ecosystem at its coastline and the hot and humid summers attract many tourists to the country. The Jamaica tourism industry accounts for 40% of the total employment and 405 of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and is mainly reliant on the sea, sun, and sand. Therefore with many immigrants taking place to Kingston due to tourism, its culture can be described as diverse and exotic. Kingston accounts for $1.0 trillion annually in value-added from tourism to the overall economy of Jamaica. This implies that the city contributes a lot to ensuring that Jamaica remains economically viable and sustainable in the future.
A political, ecological perspective of Jamaica
From a political perspective of energy, Jamaica has had significant challenges regarding energy. Jamaica is an island, and therefore it is ideally suited for using renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar. During summer periods, the island receives a lot of solar insolation and strong winds that provide many opportunities for the renewables; however, this has not been fully utilized. Therefore, according to Prime Minister Hon Andrew Holness, Jamaica has the potential to produce up to 50% of energy from its renewables. Through the ministry of energy, science, and technology, the government of Jamaica has tried to
invest heavily in the renewable sector since it is clean for the environment and can also be used for the future. With massive infrastructural developments in Jamaica, mainly in the City of Kingston, there is a need for energy, especially in the transport sector. For instance, Kingston is characterized by infrastructures such as roadways and railways, and air transport, which form the backbone of the country’s Internal system (Lucy Evans, et al(2021): 1-16). Therefore energy is required to ensure that transport, as one of the determinants of the economy, is operative and that manufactured goods can transverse all parts of Jamaica in time and the best states. On ten other hand, owing to the country’s location in the Caribbean Sea, Jamaica lies in the shipping lane to the Panama canal, making it relative closer to the large markets in North America. Jamaica, therefore, receives massive traffic of shipping containers at the Port of Kingston. Therefore for ships and other big boars to transverse all the other North American countries, the country should be energy resilient and self-reliant. Energy runs the economy and all the different sectors of Jamaica, such as transport, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Bunker oil generators usually produce the country’s electric power in Old Harbor. The facility is well equipped with liquefied natural gas storage capabilities, ensuring that the country’s electricity is well and equitably distributed. On the other hand, the Jamaica Public Service Company, the Island’s Electricity Provider, also owns other smaller power stations. Such stations include the Rockfort Power Station, Bogue Power Station, and the Hunts Bay Power Station. The country also relies on Hydroloelecric power though it does not produce substantial energy. For instance, the government relies on the White River, Morant River, Black River, Roaring River, and the Morant River to make hydroelectric power. The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica also owns a wind farm at Wigton, Manchester, that also contributes to the power supply in Jamaica. Jamaica has also relied on power from a nuclear power plant that sank in the early 1980s. The country operates the SLOWPOKE-2 nuclear reactor of 20kW capacity, which has also immensely contributed to the power output of Jamaica.
Recent research conducted by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica has shown that besides the country striving hard to become self-reliant when it comes to renewable energy, its energy system is highly dependent on imported fossil fuels. Petroleum alone accounts for almost 90% of the energy use in the country. The country mainly imports its oil and motor fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from Venezuela and Mexico. The country imports an estimated 82 000 barrels daily, including asphalt and lubrication products. The transport system consumes about 20% of the petrol while the rest of the imports are refined into various motor fuels at the Petrojam Refinery in Kingston. With massive importation of oil, the country usually incurs many costs when it comes to importation (Jeff Popke(2018): 165-174). Most specifically, Kingston usually encounters a lot of power losses. With Kingston’s backbone of Jamaica’s economy, the country has lost a lot of revenues due to consistent power losses since the overreliance on renewables has proven not to be enough for the whole city and the country. Kingston holds about 80% of the country’s
economic resources, including transport systems, manufacturing industries, and processing industries. This means that Jamaica usually experiences higher revenue loss with a shortage of power. With an expected increase in fuel prices but most specifically oil prices in the future, there is a likelihood that most households in Jamaica would suffer the dramatic increase in the fuel prices, which will create a further problem in the energy sector in Jamaica. Therefore, there is the need for the Jamaican government to collaborate with other energy stakeholders to chart a new way to energy security based on domestic renewable sources to build an energy system that is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable.
Current practices and policies in the production and consumption of energy
The environmental community-based organizations such as the Kingston Ozone Unit and the Jamaican Environmental forum have played a significant role in implementing the policies and strategies in the production and consumption of energy to reduce the negative climatic changes in Kingston. Kingston has always faced many power challenges due to inadequate natural resources that contribute to the power supply. With the increasing population over the last decade, the land space in the city has been occupied by people as settlement. Therefore, there is minimal space to explore minerals such as oil. My building for residential and commercial purposes has also been set up, creating more pressure on the few available land spaces for other economic developments. With increased population and limited power supply, the city has faced a decreased production in the transport, manufacturing, and processing sectors hence laming the country’s economy even further. Some of the principal actors in the energy sector of Jamaica and particularly in Kingston regarding the energy policies include the decision-maker stakeholders and the non-decision maker stakeholders. The decision-makers include the utilities and the Public Utility companies such as the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica and the Jamaica Public Service. The non-decision-making stakeholders in Kingston, Jamaica, have the community, the electricity customers, and energy advocacy groups (Kaycea Campbell, et al pp. 67-85. Elsevier, 2022). Electricity generators, private citizens, and environmental organizations such as the Kingston Ozone unit and the Jamaican Environmental forum are environmental community-based organizations.
Even with the city’s potentialities in terms of proximity to the ocean to tap renewable energy using the available water and wind resources, the government has not fully taken advantage of the potentiality due to inadequate funding and other feasibility constraints such as displacement of people. The government fears the high cost of resettling the displaced people and the higher cost of purchasing the wind turbines and installing hydroelectric power plants. For this reason, the government has done very little to implement the renewable energy strategy and reduce the overreliance on petroleum from other countries, which poses a considerable danger to the environment through pollution.
In this regard, the hotel and tourism sector faces high electricity costs due to lightning and air conditioning, which account for up to 14% of revenue for some hotels. Jamaica’s government’s primary goal has always been to diversify the national energy supply into a mix of energy resources for energy security. With the government policy not to restrict the source of electricity generation, many houses have sought to use solar, wind, waste to energy solutions, natural gas, and hydroelectric power. However, all these sources have not been used to their potential.
With over-reliance on non-renewable sources of energy such as petroleum and its products, there have been many incidences of climatic changes in Kingston that have resulted in many economic activities becoming lame. Excessive use of petroleum in the transport and manufacturing sector has resulted in pollution of the environment. The ozone layer has been interfered with, resulting in climatic conditions such as global warming and increased flooding in Kingston during the summer. Its proximity to the sea makes it prone to rising sea levels due to increasing temperatures, leading to flooding in the neighborhoods (Ariel Macaspac, et al ,pp. 247-268 2021). The heatwaves resulting from global warming also have negative impacts on the health of the residents. During mild winter, the city is also prone to rat infestation, resulting in diseases such as plague the residents. Therefore in preparation for such risks, the Environmental community-based Organizations such as Kingston Ozone Unit, in collaboration with the national government, Jamaican Environmental Forum, and the community, have advised its residents to use renewable sources of energy to reduce the greenhouse effects increased temperatures. Increased carbon emissions in the city have also resulted in increased temperatures that have affected the city residents causing skin diseases and other illnesses.
The energy democracy project
The environmental community-based Organization is the type of energy democracy project that would help solve the energy crisis in Kingston, Jamaica. With increased climatic adverse climatic changes in Kingston due to increased petroleum demands in the primary industries such as the transport, manufacturing, tourism, and the processing industries, it is necessary to ensure that it is conserved and protected for sustainability and resiliency (Ming-Lang Tseng, et al(2019): 741-754). The Kingston Ozone Unit, in collaboration with other non-governmental organizations such as the Jamaican Environmental forum and the community, has shown concern and therefore has resolved to take the necessary actions to resolve the energy-related issues. With little financing from the government, the district has raised several issues related to lack of access to renewable energy sources, lack of sustainable renewable energy projects, and excessive use of non-renewable energy sources such as petroleum that have resulted in adverse climatic changes.
Therefore the Kingston Ozone Unit, which is a Unit is a grassroots party located in Kingston City in Jamaica, has decided to collaborate with the stakeholders in the energy sector, such as the Petroleum cooperation of Jamaica and the Jamaica Public Service, to ensure that carbon emissions to the atmosphere are reduced and that the residents embrace the use of renewable sources of energy in production. Because Jamaica relies heavily on the tourism industry, there is a need for the Kingston Ozone Unit to ensure that its ecology is protected by reducing pollution and the effects of pollution on its ecosystem. Somehow, climate challenge has affected Kingston’s tourism sector, including increased heavy rainfall, severe hurricanes, drought, and shoreline erosion (John Morrissey et al.(2020). However, through its roles, Organization has implemented measures to help with climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Kingston Ozone Unit uses dialogue with the main actors to find amicable ways of reducing environmental degradation and implementing energy-wise projects for resident benefits. It has advice on the use of innovations such as carbon removal and sequestration in recycling and eco-friendly transportation to reduce environmental pollution . The Organization has also come together with other stakeholders to help raise the necessary funds to install wind turbines and the hydroelectric power plants to supplement clean and renewable electricity to the national grid. Another change that the Kingston Ozone wants to be implemented is the use of advanced technology in the leading energy supplier and companies in refining petroleum before being consumed. This is one of the best energy democracy strategies that will ensure less carbon emission, hence leading to climatic justice (Henny van der Windt, et al(2018): 570-585). The Kingston Ozone Unit has also decided to collaborate with the CARICOM, The Caribbean Community, and Commons Market to promote economic integration through effective energy use in Jamaica. It will also play a more significant role in seeking foreign policies and funds to establish renewable plants in Jamaica and specifically for the residents of Kingston. The CARICOM will also facilitate an easier transition from the old energy to the use of electric power in transportation and other sectors of the economy. Collaboration with other Caribbean countries would increase climate justice since these countries are also trying to eradicate the same challenges that Jamaica faces in terms of energy demand. The collaboration will result in environmental sustainability and peaceful coexistence.
Conclusion
With the Kingston Ozone Unit and the Jamaican Environmental Forum having a standard course, environmental conservation and sustainability, the policies and strategies regarding energy use will result in sustainability in Jamaica (Gambhir et al.(2021): 222-231). There would also be a growth in the economy due to increased tourism activities. Therefore, it is evident that with the effective implementation of such policies as renewable energy sources in the transportation and manufacturing sector, climate justice would be ensured in Kingston and the entire of Jamaica.
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