GFEI workshop plans next steps in Jamaica
GFEI held a successful workshop in Jamaica on 4th March to review progress and plan next steps. At the event, held in Kingston, the national working group meeting took place to discuss the developments of the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI) GEF 5 project and to agree on the next activities for the project. The event was well attended by representatives from the Ministry of Science, Energy & Technology; Ministry of Economic Growth & Job Creation and the Ministry of Transport & Works, among others.
The workshop included the presentation of the Fuel Economy Database 2005-2016 in Jamaica and an overview of the project to date by the GFEI national implementing partners from the University of Technology of Jamaica (UTech. Jamaica). Over the past two years under the project, thousands of data sets on Jamaica's motor-vehicle fleet have been gathered, which are now being processed and will help to inform policy direction.
Options for fiscal and non-fiscal policies were presented, including case studies of GFEI projects in Asia Pacific. Links between fuel efficiency and electric mobility were of particular interest to the government. The next activities will include the development of a fuel economy labelling proposal and relevant policies.
Chief Technical Director in the Economic Growth Ministry, Lt Colonel Oral Khan, said the Government continues its work on overall air quality management and is actively working on a national programme to facilitate improved air quality islandwide. This is being achieved through the development of the draft emissions policy framework for Jamaica, which addresses the subject of emissions in relation to air quality and climate-change mitigation.
The project is at the stage of national stakeholder consultations that aim to develop proposals for policy and legislation to support actions at the national level for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in the road transport sector.
Also at the event Centro Mario Molina Chile (CMMCh) presented a recent Air Quality Diagnostic Study for Kingston with recommendations on how to improve the existing air quality monitoring network.