Blue economy vital

The youth of Barbados are being encouraged to continue in their efforts towards developing a sustainable and financially viable blue economy that will push the nation into being one of the leading countries in the clean energy and sustainable product sectors.

These remarks came from the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, during the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launch of its new Blue Lap at Copacabana recently. The Blue Lab is part of the UNDP Accelerator Labs initiative, which is tasked with addressing modern challenges which affect small nations.

Minister Humphrey, during his brief address, spoke about his pleasure in seeing locals heeding the call in seeing the dire impact we as a country has had upon our environment so far.

“We have come to the realization that we cannot continue to dispose of garbage in the way that we have traditionally disposed of garbage; we have come to the realization that we cannot treat to the fish or turtles in the same way that we have. To do that, we need new people bringing new ideas to the table,” he revealed.

Humphrey also explained how it was his belief, that real and meaningful investment in innovation, was the way forward for Barbados not just on a blue economy level, but for great new and exciting sectors for young persons to ply their trades.

“I think innovation has to become something real. There are a number of young people out there who are doing transformative things. There are people who are taking sweet potato skins and making plastics. There are people who are taking the sargassum seaweed and converting it to bio-methane gas. We must make the best of the ocean while trying to preserve it,” he said.

Forerunner of the Blue Lab initiative, Nikola Simpson, explained that the lab was established to promote out-of-the-box thinking and experimentation to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in their efforts to developing new sustainable businesses. The Blue Lap will not only work with private and public sector bodies in developing locally sourced projects and solutions to current challenges, but also serve as an accelerant for projects which have already created but were in indeed of more ideas to take them to the next level.