Cutting emissions has plateaued, says minister
BBCJersey's environment minister has said progress to cut the island's greenhouse gas emissions has "plateaued".
New data released on June 2 revealed there had been no reduction of emissions between 2022 and 2023.
The Data from the States said the island produced 357,626 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2023 - the same as the previous year.
The environment minister Steve Luce said transport and heating in homes was the "big issue".
'Call for action'
The figures also showed greenhouse gas emissions fell by 48% between 1990 and 2023.
Luce said "significant progress" had been made across the last three decades, but it had now "plateaued".
"It's a call to action — especially in sectors like transport and heating where we still see high emission," he said.
Luce added there were new incentives available to islanders to switch from oil or gas to low carbon alternatives, which would help lower emissions.
'Serious global problem'
The Jersey in Transition group, an environmental initiative in the island, said more needed to be done to "regain momentum".
One of its members, Nigel Jones, said: "We've picked the low-hanging fruit and now we need to do the harder stuff, addressing transport and heating our homes.
"I don't think we're rising to the urgency of this at all at the moment, this is a very serious global problem...there has to be much more done".
The government had run a scheme until last year which provided free or discounted parking for electric vehicles in Jersey.
It was put in place in 2008 to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.
Martin Gurren, managing director of Freelance Motors on Longueville Road, said the government should "look again" at incentive schemes.
He said: "People are still buying electric vehicles, but they tend to be the smaller vehicles as opposed to the family vehicles...if we are going to keep the momentum moving, we need something to take it forward".
