An environmental war chest of some $13 million could be freed up for climate change projects as early as next month following nearly a decade of delays, Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley said Monday.
The premier, who pressed the British government last week to help the Virgin Islands access international climate funding, expressed concern with slow progress at home in getting the Climate Change Trust Fund operational.
Asked about the delay during a Monday press conference, Dr. Wheatley blamed a ministry he heads.
“I haven’t really been pleased with the rate of progress in that particular area,” said the premier, who is also the finance minister. “I have made it clear to the Ministry of Finance that whatever needs to be done should be done.”
The CCTF has sat nearly empty since it was established in 2015 even as the government has collected millions in tourist taxes designed to fill it.
“Right now, it’s just a matter of agreeing to the regulations: Those just have to come to the House of Assembly,” Dr. Wheatley said Monday, echoing similar remarks he made in June. “So we are just waiting for them to reach the Cabinet. Once we agree to them, then we will be able to operationalise the fund.”
Green projects
After the money is freed up, Dr. Wheatley said, several green projects are ready to apply to receive it.
“It’s probably somewhere around $13 million in there,” he said. “And we have a Climate Change Trust Fund board in place, and they are ready, I believe, to be able to receive proposals for projects. And we have a number of projects for them to consider once the fund is operationalised.”
Pressed on a timeline, the premier indicated that the money’s release is imminent.
“Certainly, I would like to see this happen before the end of this month,” he said.
For about seven years, the government has been collecting a $10 levy from most non-cruise-ship visitors under the 2017 Environmental Protection and Tourism Improvement Fund Act.
The legislation requires the money to be used to combat climate change, protect the environment and boost the tourist industry, and leaders have said that about 40 percent of the take would be earmarked for the CCTF.
But the fund, whose board was initially appointed in 2017, has never received any of the money collected through the tax, leaving board members to foot the bill for initial steps out of their own pockets.
Then, shortly after the 2019 general election, the board’s membership was revoked by then-premier Andrew Fahie’s administration — a move the Commission of Inquiry later found to be unlawful.
Dr. Wheatley reappointed the board in June of last year, but in February he acknowledged that the 2017 eco-levy law had never been properly brought into force, and the House of Assembly passed a new bill to validate it.
Even this legislative update was not sufficient to get the fund operational, according to the premier’s Monday explanation.
London visit
The ongoing delays at home did not stop the premier from pushing for climate financing last week in London.
Dr. Wheatley said he used a Sept. 11 meeting with the United Kingdom Overseas Territories Minister Stephen Doughty to seek help in freeing up international funds for the VI and other OTs facing the ramifications of climate change.
Dr. Wheatley said Mr. Doughty agreed that the matter should be on the agenda for the November Joint Ministerial Council meeting between the UK and OTs in London.
The premier said he wants the VI and other “frontline” OTs to be able to draw down funding available under the Paris Agreement negotiated at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference.
Currently, most OTs are not eligible for such funding because of their political status as non-independent countries.
