By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas cannot afford the $4bn required to meet its pledged climate change targets without international financial, technology and other “capacity-building” support, it has admitted.

The nation, in its updated nationally-determined contribution (NDC) that sets out the goals and road map for how it will meet the climate change mitigation measures it signed up to in the 2015 Paris Agreement, warned it simply cannot cover these costs while striving to also fulfill its economic and social “development agenda”.

“The mitigation and adaptation targets presented in the updated NDC are contingent upon receiving international support for technology transfer, capacity-building and financial resources, including through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaptation Fund (AF), multilateral and bilateral agreements and the local private sector,” The Bahamas warned. 

“The indicative cost for The Bahamas’ identified NDC measures through 2030 is in excess of $4,000 million for mitigation and adaptation actions. The exact cost for these activities will be further developed over the next few years. As a result of low international ambition for mitigation as well as still very high subsidies for financing of carbon intensive activities, the cost of adaptation is expected to continue to increase and even go beyond the ability of certain sectors to adapt.

“The Bahamas is not able to pay for the incremental cost of adaptation and mitigation while supporting the development agenda of the country.” The disclosure comes as The Bahamas hosts the Climate Finance in the Americas summit at Atlantis over the next several days, with the Inter-American Development Bank providing $220,000 to fund the event’s hosting and also help develop support for “regional climate action”.

Addressing the opening ceremony last night, Prime Minister Philip Davis KC said: “We are here to build solutions in climate finance and sustainable development at a time when such solutions can no longer be postponed. In order to survive the changing climate, we need to co-operate, we need to co-ordinate, and we need to collaborate.”

With climate change finance and sustainable development inextricably linked, Mr Davis reiterated that The Bahamas had incurred “billions in hurricane-related debt” due to being struck by four storms of Category Four intensity or above in less than one decade. “Every hurricane leaves us less fiscal space to prepare for the next one, and also means we are under-investing in our people, our economy and our future,” he added.

Warning that “millions of climate refugees” will be the result if the crisis is left unchecked, impacting virtually all countries in the world, Mr Davis said it was vital that “we build climate finance solutions that free-up resources in this new era of extreme weather”. 

He also called for multilateral institutions, such as the IDB and World Bank, to be reformed so they “can de-risk and incentivise new ventures and partnerships, and unleash funding at the scale needed for robust action and investment”. Renewing his call for industrialised nations to live up to their promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, Mr Davis said “innovative insurance solutions to address gaps in protection and affordability” are also required

Meanwhile, The Bahamas’ revised 40 NDC commitments largely revolve around energy, building code and land use reform. Implementation of the proposed new Bahamas Building Code, and resulting reduction in energy demand, is estimated to reduce this nation’s annual carbon emissions footprint by the equivalent of 22.6 gigagrams of carbon dioxide by 2030.

“The Bahamas currently has a building code from 2003. The revised building code is expected to improve the minimum standards, provisions and requirements for safe and stable building design and construction methods,” the country’s updated NDC commitments pledge.

“It is assumed that the adoption and implementation of The Bahamas’ revised building code will reduce energy used for cooling and lighting by 25 percent in the new residential and commercial buildings. One thousand one hundred thirty-two new residential (1132) buildings per year are assumed, with an average annual electricity consumption of 1,835 kWh (kilowatt hours) per household for lighting and 2,618 kWh per household for air conditioning (AC).

“One hundred and ten (110) new commercial buildings per year are assumed, 86 percent of which are non-governmental. The average floor space is assumed as 1,455 square metres per building, with an average annual electricity consumption of 31.2 kWh per square metre for lighting and 58.13 kWh per square metre for AC,” the NDC paper added.

“It is assumed that all new residential and commercial buildings will have air conditioning systems. This revised building code will impact the new construction of residential and commercial buildings between 2024 and 2030. Improving building design can reduce the energy demand and enhance resilience. The adoption and implementation of this revised building code will assist in the reduction of emissions for commercial and residential buildings.

“The revision of the building code is currently ongoing, with several stakeholder workshops and webinars. The revised building code is expected to cover the entire Commonwealth of The Bahamas except for the Port area in Grand Bahama island.”

As for the energy sector, The Bahamas’ commitments call for it to increase the use of solar water heating by 40 percent. “Replacement of electrical and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) water heaters both in the residential and commercial sectors with solar water heaters will help reduce energy consumption and emissions,” this country has pledged, estimating that achieving this will reduce annual carbon emissions footprint by the equivalent of 34.5 gigagrams of carbon dioxide.

“It is assumed that the current uptake of solar water heaters is 5 percent, and an increase in use of solar water heaters of 40 percent is expected by 2030,” The Bahamas’ NDC commitments paper added. “Of the current 115,660 households, 60 percent use water heaters. The average annual energy consumption of water heaters is 1,890 kWh per household.

“There are currently 3,946 commercial buildings with an average floor space of 1,455 square metres per building. Ten percent of commercial buildings use water heaters with an average annual energy consumption of 2.15 kWh per square metre. Currently, water heating is mainly electric or with LPG. Only 5 percent of water heaters are solar.”

The goal is to increase the solar water hearer “uptake” rate to 20 percent, quadrupling the present pace. This feeds into the overall aim of increasing the proportion of The Bahamas’ energy needs that are generated by renewables to 30 percent by 2030 - a target that, if reached, would reduce this nation’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by an amount equal to 412.6 gigagrams.

“The utility grids are able to handle the increase in renewables without undergoing major upgrades to their system. To achieve 30 percent in renewable energy penetration, the following was modelled - 174 Mega Watts (MW) of Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, 30kW of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), 15 MW of waste-to-energy and 20MW of wind,” the NDC report said.

“This action will help diversify the Bahamian energy mix reducing its dependency to fossil fuels and, consequently, reducing the probability of system disruptions due to extreme weather and spikes in demand.”