CARICOM Energy Month Kilo Walk sends clear message on responsible use of energy

Scores of persons turned out on Saturday, 19 November, for the ‘CARICOM Energy Month 2022 Kilo Walk: Fully Charged’. The Kilo Walk is one of the traditional activities of CARICOM Energy Month which is observed in November under the theme ‘Our future is electric’. This year was the first time since COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed that the Kilo Walk was staged.

The CARICOM Secretariat collaborated with the Guyana Energy Agency, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, to host the event.

Participants moved off from the CARICOM Secretariat following an energetic warm up session and took just about an hour to cover the route.

Walkers included President of Guyana, H.E. Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Prime Minister of Guyana, the Hon. Mark Phillips, Brigadier (ret’d), CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General, Dr. Armstrong Alexis who led a CARICOM Secretariat team, members of the diplomatic corps, Head of the Guyana Energy Agency, Dr. Mahender Sharma and his team, and youth organisations.

At the end of the walk, Prime Minister Phillips addressed the gathering. He said the Kilo Walk participants sent a clear message that “we have to be more responsible in the use of energy”. He added that energy efficiency is important and “we have to embrace renewable energy”.

“We have sent a message to the wider world this morning by this walk,” he said.

Dr. Alexis said he was happy that persons were able to gather in person after a few years “to do something healthy”.

“The idea, I believe, was for us to link our healthy lifestyles with that of the theme which reflects energy and energy consumption, energy efficiency. So while we might have burnt out quite a bit of calories on the utilisation side, we have also raised the consciousness of energy efficiency in terms of our use of more renewable resources,” the Deputy Secretary-General said.

He expressed gratitude to the partnering agencies; the CARICOM team for organising the event and to the participants on the walk, especially the “leadership of Guyana”.

“It shows the commitment that conversations around energy efficiency, actions around behaviour patterns that need to be changed to survive this onslaught of climate change, that we all have a role to play,” he said.

Source: CARICOM TODAY