And another Government body which is looking reduce the waste in finances is the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology and Public Utilities.They’re trying to reduce the amount of energy that the country wastes, which directly translates into a reduction of finances which must be diverted to cover the costs.

They held a session at the Biltmore Plaza Hotel where all stakeholders were able to discuss with international experts on how to work on energy efficiency.

Today the Director of Energy told us that although Belize’s carbon footprint is small, it is only that way because our population is also small. He said that in this region, Belize wastes quite a large amount of energy.

Ambrose Tillett – Energy Director, Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology and Public Utilities
“This is a kick off meeting for a project that we call the IDBTC (IDB Technical Corporation) – if you look where we use energy, there are three main areas where we use energy; in transportaiton, industry and in buildings. Buildings whether it’s commercial buildings, households and so forth and the area that we’ve decided to this TC is in the area is in commercial and residential buildings of all industries – so that’s one area of the TC. The second area of the TC has to do with providing the Ministry with some guidance in terms of what kind of renewable technologies which provide electricity – in some cases fuels as replacement for fossil fuels and this TC is going to be looking at some renewable technologies to see which one will be appropriate or relevant in the contexr of Belize. The reason why our carbon footprint is small is because our population is small – if you look at a per-capita basis our carbon footprint is one of the highest because we use energy in Belize quite inefficiently. In fact in the region Belize is one of the most inneficient users of energy – per capita basis. We would like to get that footprint lower but that is something that we want to do because we believe it’s the right things to do. But really the compelling reason we are doing this is for economic reasons because energy prices will continue to rise and the only way we can going to mitigate the shock of that rise in energy price is really to use energy more efficiently, more rationally and also to change out of those fuel sources which is fossil fuels which are becoming more scarce and more expensive.”

Gianmarco Servetti – Representative, Castalia Strategic Investors
“There is more that Belize can do apart from hydro and bio methods doing the radars – there are other technologies that it can tap into and work is ongoing for wind, for solar for more bio mass and for more hydro. Also apart from diversifying the sources on the site – the main focus of this assignment will be to increase the efficiency which Belize uses this energy.”