Conference highlights ways P.E.I. could learn from Danish island’s fight against climate change
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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A convention and workshop held on the P.E.I. Convention Centre on Feb. 6 highlighted methods the province might study from the work being achieved on one other small island within the combat in opposition to local weather change.
The convention was hosted in Charlottetown by the Division of Atmosphere, Power and Local weather Motion and featured a number of audio system, together with Søren Hermansen, supervisor of the Samsø Power Academy in Samsø, Denmark.
“My ambition is to make clear to (P.E.I.) what are the subsequent steps, the place are we going with this. Is it going to be dearer?” Hermansen informed SaltWire Community in an interview on the occasion.
“After (post-tropical storm) Fiona, the eye is stronger than ever, as a result of we felt the implications of nature and the entire bother it has to convey.”
Hermansen has been working with inexperienced vitality for over 20 years, with the final a number of spent travelling the world to carry workshops, showcasing the work being achieved to cut back emissions on his residence island.
Samsø has a inhabitants of greater than 3,700 folks as of 2017 and has been working to transform its grid to run on non-emitting vitality sources going again to the Nineties.
“Everybody ought to wish to have a component on this dialog as a result of there are shared advantages irrespective of which a type of angles you’re coming from.” – Anna Demeo
Like P.E.I., Samsø is thought for rising and exporting potatoes on prime of being a well-liked vacationer vacation spot.
“There may be loads of similarities, not simply in measurement solely but in addition within the constructive society,” stated Hermansen. “My take is, how can we manage the next resolution capability and a greater feeling of possession amongst residents of native communities like P.E.I. or Samsø which are form of restricted (in) scale and measurement?”
The purpose of the workshops is to have an open dialogue with communities to debate modifications wanted to ensure that inexperienced know-how to turn out to be extra generally used.
“The ambition is to make Samsø a showcase inexperienced lab growth group that helps the municipality, residents and companies to go in a greener path,” stated Hermansen. “You want to have the ability to produce or create a story folks can hook up with.”
Do you know?
- Samsø gained a authorities competitors in 1997 to turn out to be a mannequin renewable vitality group.
- On the time, Samsø was completely depending on oil and coal.
- 100 per cent of the Samsø’s electrical energy now comes from wind energy, with surplus electrical energy exported to the mainland grid.
Anna Demeo, chief product officer for Fermata Power, additionally spoke on the occasion and informed SaltWire Community the consequences of local weather change impression many alternative departments, making it necessary for the group to work collectively.
“It’s actually a singular interval in time, the options we discover, it’s not a zero-sum sport,” stated Demeo. “What’s good for utilities could be good for customers and could be good for the atmosphere as nicely.”
A few of the work achieved on Samsø cited by Demeo was its implementation of offshore wind generators, which account for over 70 per cent of the vitality produced on the island.
“Know-how is one piece of it, however it’s actually about how can we work collectively when it comes to coverage and financial fashions,” she stated. “All of this stuff are on the forefront dialogue due to local weather change, due to a altering grid and due to elevated excessive climate occasions.”
Having the chance to share this message in P.E.I. was necessary as comparable work is already being carried out.
“Everybody ought to wish to have a component on this dialog as a result of there are shared advantages irrespective of which a type of angles you’re coming from,” stated Demeo.
Atmosphere, Power and Local weather Motion Minister Steven Myers additionally attended the occasion, saying in an announcement that having Hermansen in P.E.I. was a singular studying alternative for the general public.
“Hermansen gained the Goteborg award – often called the environmental model of the Nobel prize – for his work with sustainable vitality and he impressed Samsø Island to collectively construct a group vitality challenge,” stated Myers.
“Since 2020, now we have been constructing on classes discovered from sustainable vitality fashions in Samsø and different jurisdictions to tell our nation-leading net-zero targets.”
Rafe Wright is a Native Journalism Initiative reporter, a place coated by the federal authorities. He writes about local weather change points for the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island and could be reached by electronic mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @wright542.
