MINISTER of Water, Environment, and Climate Change Matthew Samuda has scoffed at critics who claim the Andrew Holness-led Administration is not doing enough to protect Jamaica’s environment.

According to Samuda, much of the local criticism has been uninformed and unfair, based on the measures implemented by the Government over the past 10 years.

“To those seeking to be a hero for the environment I just want to tell them that, ‘You don’t need to create a villain for you to be a hero,’ ” declared Samuda at the latest Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange last week.

Samuda, who was recently elected to head the 193-member United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) — the world’s highest-level decision-making body for matters related to the environment — told Observer editors and reporters that the international community seems more attuned to the work of the Jamaican Government than many at home.

“You usually say, ‘Dance a yard before you dance abroad,’ but in our case, it is different. What is happening is that you have to dance abroad before you dance a yard in Jamaica — that is reflected in the fact that the environmental caucus of the Latin American and Caribbean region saw it fit to nominate Jamaica to head UNEA.

“This means they have acknowledged that Jamaica is a leader in environmental management and that our strides made in protection, restoration, and pollution curtailment are accepted as global leaders in these areas,” said Samuda.

“So this is the rest of the globe saying that your environmental management is at a level where you are a good candidate and a good country to lead the way on the discussions on future environmental treaties which we hope to bring to the fore by next year December in Nairobi, Kenya — at the home of UNEA. So this is a global acknowledgement of the work that we’re doing but also a reminder to us that we have to redouble our efforts,” the minister added.

He pointed out that the Government of Jamaica, like all small island developing states (SIDS), is navigating the “triple planetary crisis”, as dubbed by the United Nations Environment Programme.

“The triple planetary crisis refers to pollution, loss of biodiversity and, of course, climate change… In Jamaica we can see that all three of those issues have played out, and are playing out, on a daily basis and impacting quality of life, economic development and, indeed, social stability.

“Now, the construct of the former Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, as it was dubbed then, did include the Environment Risk Management Branch and, indeed, the Climate Change Advisory Board, as opposed to now the Climate Change Branch,” Samuda told the Monday Exchange.

He argued that under that construct, the Holness Administration had stated very clearly that the philosophical underpinning of them being together was that you could not achieve prosperity through pollution, and you could not achieve sustainable economic development through environmental degradation.

“It is under that construct that you had the greatest strides in tackling the triple planetary crisis. But how do you tackle the triple planetary crisis? One way is you manage land use. The National Land Agency (NLA) is also under that ministry; one could argue that it should be under environmental considerations as well, but you tackle land use by protecting vulnerable ecosystems, by protecting a certain amount of your land mass,” Samuda shared.

The environment minister noted that since 2015 Jamaica has been a member of the High Ambition Coalition — a group of countries which asked the globe to commit to protecting 30 per cent of its land mass by 2030.

“Jamaica called for that from 2015 and continued to advocate for same up until last year at COP16 in Colombia, where this became a globally agreed target,” Samuda added.

He noted that Jamaica now has 25 per cent of its land mass being protected under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, which is a jump from about 13 per cent when the Holness Administration took office.

“And that is comprised of land protection orders under the Natural Resources Conservation Authority and, of course, Forestry Orders which would have been implemented over the last few years,” said Samuda.

He underscored that the current Government has issued protection orders for the Cockpit Country, “which is the single largest protected area in the English-speaking Caribbean, being approximately 80,000 hectares”.

Samuda noted that several Administrations over the years had committed to formally protecting the Cockpit Country, but “it was under the Andrew Holness Administration that this was achieved”.

The minister noted, too, that protection orders have also been issued for the Black River Morass — the largest wetland in the English-speaking Caribbean, spanning more than 5,000 hectares — and the Pedro Cays.

“And we don’t declare spaces — as some of our neighbours do — and not put in management plans, not put in wardens, not put in the other elements that truly protect. Because I can go with the stroke of a pen and protect 30 per cent of the country’s land mass but without the appropriate studies, the appropriate mapping, the appropriate management plans, it rings hollow. None of that has been a facet of the leadership of the environment under the Andrew Michael Holness-led Administration,” declared Samuda.

Turning to the vexing issue of pollution, Samuda pointed to the Administration’s ban on unrecyclable plastic and its decision to abandon a plan which could have resulted in cheaper but less environmentally friendly electricity for Jamaicans.

“The fact that we were targeting pollution, we gave up the 1,000-megawatt coal plant initiative that the previous Administration had contemplated. That could have moved you from 42 cents a kilowatt hour [for electricity] to 11 cents a kilowatt hour. Some would say that, ‘You shouldn’t have done that’ but we said, ‘You can’t achieve prosperity through pollution. That would have affected your air quality negatively,’ ” said Samuda.

He told the Monday Exchange that the single largest contributor to negative air quality in Jamaica is the production of energy and motor vehicle usage.

Samuda pointed to the Administration’s push toward electric vehicles as part of its commitment to improving the air quality.

“We have reduced import duties on electric vehicles, we have made it easier for them to come in, and we have made them more competitive. We are actively pursuing a 50 per cent production of energy from renewable sources, which will see our emissions go down.

“It is this Administration, under its current construct, which would have passed the first emissions policy for Jamaica, which would have passed the first climate change policy for Jamaica. It is this Administration that is actively putting in the single largest investment in the nation’s sewer network and the nation’s sewage management capacity of any Administration — whether from the previous colonial government or otherwise,” added Samuda.

He argued that over the last eight to nine years Jamaica has had its greatest level of protection of the environment, and this has been done under the Holness Administration.

“Every single policy that governs the environment has been updated and some new ones written, because there were gaps in the regulatory framework. We have updated things that people spoke about for decades. We have updated the fines in the Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act, Wildlife Protection Act, to allow for body corporates to be charged and for their fines to be set by a judge,” declared Samuda.