Dennis Minott | Under-medicated at COP28 – a ‘bashment’ in Dubai

A couple of weeks ago, Ambassador Byron Blake, a fellow Gleaner columnist, alerted me to what seemed then an April fool’s joke told early by Jamaica’s delegation to the 83,000 crestfallen participants in COP28 as they departed, exhausted, from that elaborate flop in Dubai on December 2.

Off-hand, I scribbled:

3 times 0 = 3 x 0 = 0 and posted it by email to him in the spirit of levity I thought the joke warranted.

Within minutes, he posted me back the following release out of COP28, an excerpt of which I am sharing:

During the World Climate Action Summit of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change today, more than 20 countries from four continents launched the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy. The Declaration recognizes the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and keeping the 1.5-degree goal within reach. Core elements of the declaration include working together to advance a goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050 and inviting shareholders of international financial institutions to encourage the inclusion of nuclear energy in energy lending policies. Endorsing countries include the United States, Armenia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, Hungary, Jamaica, Japan, Republic of Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

Two days later, The Gleaner repeated the COP28 slapstick from Jamaica amid 24 strange and sad friends smiling dutifully at their own joke and desperately seeking company among the 83,000 invited guests to the UAE’s “bashment” in Dubai.

HARD FACTS

That made me reflect that no adequately medicated island nation’s delegation, let alone the lone-star delegation of Latin America and the Caribbean, should need to be reminded of the following 19 hard facts of life in this zone:

1.0 The Caribbean has maintained a nuclear-free zone status for over 50 years.

2.0 CARICOM nations and associated territories have not been consulted on Jamaica’s potential commitment to pro-SMR initiatives.

3.0 Jamaica, along with Barbados, Dominica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Guyana, and Belize, has demonstrated expertise in generating energy from green sources such as wind, solar voltaics, hydro, biomass, and fuel alcohol for decades.

4.0 The socio-political landscape of Jamaica favours a sustainable and eco-friendly approach, as reflected in the country’s commitment to renewable energy sources.

5.0 Public opinion in Jamaica leans towards environmental conservation and sustainable practices, which may influence decisions related to nuclear energy adoption.

6.0 The government’s historical emphasis on diversifying the energy mix highlights a strategic interest in minimising dependence on any outdated notion of “baseload” comprising on any single energy source.

7.0 Tourism is a significant and most sensitive economic activity in Jamaica and neighbouring nations.

8.0 Jamaica, in collaboration with land-rich and water-rich nations like Guyana, Suriname, and Belize, can readily explore commercial partnerships to meet its basic agricultural and energy needs through the bulk trade in biomass. This shipped biomass, Biocrude, can be processed locally, in Jamaica to produce green hydrogen, animal feeds, green fertilisers (liquid and solid), pharmaceuticals, and biochar.

9.0 In the named countries, Leucaena and other energy/leaf protein plantation crops can be up and producing for continuous mechanical harvesting in less than 20 months.

10.0 The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) reports that attempts to implement SMR technology in the Western world have consistently failed at various stages – feasibility studies, build-out, projected post-erection energy price to end-users, and national regulatory licensing.

11.0 Jamaica currently lacks practical capacity in any nuclear power engineering.

12.0 The nation’s ability to respond to nuclear accidents is limited.

13.0 Jamaican and Caribbean universities and research institutes already possess enough technically skilled personnel who can promptly support and sustain a green, non-threatening, or non-nuclear future for Jamaica. The Instrumentation, Automation, and Controls expertise is abundant in our regional Science, Engineering, and Industrial Engineering departments.

14.0 The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault Zone (EPGFZ) has been one of the planet’s most catastrophic seismic zones in the past century, with particular relevance to CARICOM, and all Caribbean Basin nations and colonies.

15.0 Within the past 500 years, the south coast of Jamaica, particularly Port Royal and Kingston, bore the brunt of the devastating tsunamis triggered by the 1692 and 1907 earthquakes. Three of my grandparents constantly harped on the tsunamis which they (my grandparents) mistakenly called “tidal waves”. They worked in Kingston when 1907 was fresh in the popular memory. Two of them married, lived and worked in Rae Town, on the Kingston waterfront, not long after that catastrophic event. Such types of events evidently affected Portmore, Portland Bight, Goat Island, Old Harbour Bay, Vere, Alligator Pond, Black River, Savanna-la-Mar and surrounding southern coastal areas.

Within the past few years of recorded time, northern coastal areas of Jamaica have also been affected by massive tsunamis generated thousands of miles away in the Canary Islands, Portugal, and Central America. My late geoscientist wife never let me avoid those realities. And the Burlington event which damned the Rio Grande completely for months is still seared in the living memory of Portland’s elders and Eastern Maroons. Where millions of tons of Blue and John Crow Mountain face slid hundreds of metres like a slice of butter into the river far below, is rather plain to see even from kilometres away at Dam Head, near Windsor.

It is important to remember that tsunamis can impact any coastal area, regardless of its previous experience. While the south coast has been hit hard in the recent past, future tsunamis could potentially affect other parts of the island as well. Therefore, factoring tsunamis into energy planning is most critical for Jamaica and the Antilles.

16.0 No treaties currently guarantee the orderly international transfer of nuclear power reactor waste from Jamaica which currently has no capacity whatever to handle nuclear power station wastes locally.

17.0 As of January 1, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) have not been operational anywhere outside of the one, a prototype on a remote militarised “conventional nuclear” peninsular outcrop in Eastern China. UNIDO deployed me near there as a senior energy consultant in the 1980s.

18.0 The serious and grave potential geopolitical implications of nuclear energy adoption, including its impact on international relations and alliances, should be carefully considered.

19.0 The grave national security issues that we are inviting with SMRs even though we have proven below capacity to deal with those we now confront since the start of the past 10 years.

SERIOUS CONCERNS

Here’s the thing: The under-medicated representation of Jamaica at COP28, marked by the unanticipated endorsement of the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy, raises serious concerns about the country’s commitment to sustainable and eco-friendly energy solutions.

The presented 19 hard facts underscore the impracticality and potential risks associated with Jamaica’s consideration of Small Modular Reactors as a viable energy option. The historical commitment to a nuclear-free Caribbean, the abundance of expertise in renewable energy sources, and the socio-political landscape favouring sustainable practices are all compelling reasons to re-evaluate the recent endorsement. The highlighted vulnerabilities, including seismic activity, tsunamis, limited capacity for nuclear power engineering, and the absence of treaties for nuclear waste disposal, emphasise the need for a more informed and holistic approach to energy planning.

The potential economic and geopolitical implications, along with national security concerns, further underscore the urgency of reconsidering the ill-advised endorsement and prioritising the pursuit of proven, green alternatives for Jamaica’s energy future.

Dennis Minott, PhD, is the CEO of A-QuEST-FAIR. He is a renewable energy specialist and worked in the oil and energy sector. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.