分类： politics

On Tuesday, Barbados’ main opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) ramped up pressure on the ruling government, calling for immediate, accelerated intervention to tackle what the party has labeled a full-blown national crime crisis that has upended public safety across the island nation.

Corey Greenidge, the DLP’s shadow legal affairs minister, told reporters that incremental policy moves and empty promises have failed to curb the rapid escalation of criminal activity, leaving communities across the country exposed to growing danger. He emphasized that Barbados is now confronting an unavoidable, transformed security reality that cannot be downplayed through vague political rhetoric.

“What we are witnessing is not just a numerical rise in crime — it is a fundamental shift in the nature of illegal activity, particularly gun-related violence, that has become more targeted, better organized, and increasingly embedded in the everyday spaces where Barbadians live, work, and gather for community events,” Greenidge said.

To illustrate the scope of the crisis, Greenidge pointed to three high-profile shooting incidents that unfolded across the country in just one week: a fatal shooting in St Lucy, another violent attack in Christ Church that followed the popular Oistins Fish Festival, and a third gun-related incident at a downtown public housing complex that houses between 300 and 400 residents. He warned that once-rare acts of gun violence have now become normalized across Barbadian communities, with annual gun-related homicides now climbing past 50, a threshold that would have been unthinkable in previous years.

While Greenidge acknowledged that the incumbent government has identified high-crime hotspots and outlined a series of policy proposals — including the creation of a specialized gun court, the reopening of community police outposts, and expanded investment in forensic capabilities — he argued that the government’s overall response remains fragmented, slow-moving, and lacking the urgency the crisis demands. Many of the measures currently being promoted by the administration are not new solutions, he noted: the need for a dedicated gun court, strengthened forensic capacity, and expanded community policing have all been recognized as critical priorities for decades.

“The question is not whether these are the right policy ideas,” Greenidge said. “The question is why they are still being discussed as future plans, rather than functioning core components of a robust national crime strategy that is already protecting Barbadians.”

Greenidge stressed that ongoing delays in rolling out these promised measures are directly costing lives. For example, the years-long delay in opening a fully operational national forensic laboratory has undermined the speed and effectiveness of criminal investigations and prosecutions, leaving repeat violent offenders on the streets. He added that identifying a location for the long-promised gun court is only the first step; what Barbadian residents need to see immediately is concrete progress: enabling legislation passed, court systems activated, and urgent hearings held for gun-related cases.

At its core, Greenidge said the crisis stems from a lack of clear policy direction, inter-agency coordination, and accountability from the ruling government. Drawing on the DLP’s own official Commission on Crime report, he explained that the current crisis cannot be addressed through law enforcement action alone. The report identifies deep systemic weaknesses across the entire national justice system, from persistent court backlogs to chronically under-resourced institutions, all of which have contributed to the growing normalization of gun-fueled crime.

An effective, long-term response must be coordinated and sustained across all levels of government, Greenidge argued. It should start with intelligence-led policing that specifically targets organized criminal networks and repeat violent offenders, backed by swift legislative reform that delivers on the promised gun court and updates outdated gun control laws. The government must also crack down on the illicit flow of illegal firearms into the country and dramatically strengthen national investigative capacity. Most importantly, lasting change requires long-term prevention strategies that address the root causes of crime: youth vulnerability, widespread substance abuse, unmet mental health needs, community breakdown, and comprehensive education reform, he added.

Greenidge noted that Barbadians understand crime is a deeply complex social issue that will not be solved overnight. But despite that understanding, he said, residents are fully entitled to demand clear policy direction, urgent action, and visible progress from their leaders. “They are entitled to know that what politicians promise is actually being delivered,” Greenidge said. “And above all, they are entitled to feel safe in their own homes and communities.”

Barbados has elevated longstanding delays in residential and commercial solar panel installations and global competition for critical battery storage technology to a formal national security issue, Energy Minister Kerrie Symmonds has revealed in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY. The unprecedented designation has sparked sweeping, urgent restructuring of the island nation’s renewable energy sector, after years of gridlock that left both homeowners waiting for distributed energy systems and private investors facing costly, frustrating project hold-ups.

Symmonds openly acknowledged the depth of the sector’s bottlenecks, confirming that residents and businesses currently face a two-year waiting list for residential solar installation approvals and deployment. He told Barbados TODAY that the single largest external barrier to progress is the global race to secure battery storage technology, a critical component of reliable renewable energy systems that allows solar-generated power to be used after sunset. As a small island developing nation, Barbados’ relatively modest total demand for battery storage puts it at a distinct disadvantage against larger economies competing for the same limited global supply, the minister explained.

“Our demand requirements in the international market are not at a scale which commands the urgent attention of the suppliers, in other words our small size has been a problem in this matter,” Symmonds said.

To counter these external supply challenges, the Ministry of Energy has launched targeted internal regulatory and legislative reforms designed to streamline the entire approval and deployment process. Under direct oversight from Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, the sector has entered a period of intensive stakeholder consultation to modernize what many industry leaders have long criticized as an outdated, slow-moving regulatory framework.

Key reforms currently underway include the standardization of core industry documentation to cut down on negotiation and approval delays. This includes standardized templates for power purchase agreements, interconnection contracts that allow renewable energy systems to connect to Barbados’ national grid, and processes to facilitate the assignment of power purchase agreements between parties.

In addition to procedural overhauls, the government has initiated a full top-to-bottom review of the island’s existing renewable energy legislation, with the goal of creating a more flexible, comprehensive regulatory framework that opens up green energy investment to a broader cross-section of Barbadian society. Stakeholders are also working to resolve routine day-to-day operational barriers that have slowed the sector’s growth for years.

A central priority of the new legislative package, which fulfills a key campaign promise from the re-elected Mottley administration, is the formalization of fractional ownership for large-scale renewable energy projects. To expand access to the financial benefits of the green transition, the government plans to introduce a unit trust structure that will allow ordinary Barbadian citizens to purchase small stakes in utility-scale solar and wind energy projects, rather than restricting investment to large corporations or high-net-worth individuals.

“We are paying some attention to the need for our legislation to now reflect fractional ownership,” Symmonds said. “Our goal is broadening the base of inclusion so that the financial returns of the green economy reach all sectors of the Barbados community.”

Since the Mottley administration won re-election on February 11 and formed a new cabinet, senior government officials have held direct working sessions with renewable energy industry stakeholders to identify and resolve decades of accumulated backlogs and unaddressed concerns, the minister added.

“I am sending a clear signal that much work has been done and continues to be done to correct this situation,” Symmonds said. “Collectively the delay has been analysed and assessed and the difficulties are being identified and unraveled.”

While ongoing global energy market volatility and supply chain disruptions continue to create headwinds for the Caribbean nation, Symmonds said he confidently expects that the aggressive industry restructuring will deliver significant, tangible improvements to solar rollout timelines in the near term.

Barbados TODAY attempted to secure comment from the Barbados Renewable Energy Association on the government’s reform plans, but multiple requests for comment went unanswered as of publication.