Did you know that families in the Caribbean can spend as much as one third of their wages on their energy bills?
Energy is expensive in the Caribbean, due to the fact that most of it is imported. And not only is it expensive, it’s also fossil-fuel based too, which means it’s contributing to climate change.
But help is on its way. Two years ago, Richard Branson and José María Figueres Olsen represented the Carbon War Room at Rio+20 and announced a radical idea. They pledged to get 10 islands in the Caribbean to stop using natural gas for energy and become fossil-fuel free. In the past two years, Saint Lucia, Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Aruba have officially joined. Now Grenada and Colombia (through its islands of Providencia and San Andrés) have taken up the challenge too.
The 10 Island Challenge helps islands create a roadmap to a low-carbon economy and unite them with technology and businesses that can help them get there. By increasing the amount of renewable energy used on the islands and decreasing the amount of natural gases and other non-renewable forms of energy, the goal is to improve the economy, environment, and society of each island.
For more information, visit the Carbon War Room website.
-This week we’re lucky enough to share this piece written by the lovely Kendall Wood, who is interning for Virgin Unite.
Kendall is currently attending United World College of the Atlantic, an international high school in Wales. At Atlantic College, there are 350 students from 90 different countries studying the International Baccalaureate program. The UWC mission is to make education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. For more information on UWC, visit their website.
