Members in the House of Assembly from both political parties are showing what may be a bipartisan willingness to work on the issue of global warming.

Shadow Environment Minister Cole Simons said on Wednesday on the House floor: “I think the country should have a plan for the next five or ten years to protect us from the natural phenomenon.”

The comment came during a floor discussion about the Department of Parks section in the new Budget. Parks falls under the Ministry of the Environment. The 2007/2008 Budget allows a 61 percent increase in energy costs because the department has taken on extra vehicles and needs the money to buy fuel.

Last fiscal year $89,000 was budgeted for energy costs. The new fiscal year will require $143,000.

Responding to those numbers, Government MP Ashfield DeVent said: “I would take the opportunity to suggest, in conjunction with the Minister of W & E (Works and Engineering), that it begin to look at, maybe it could be a pilot programme with the Minister of the Environment, to look at importing for the first time a couple of hybrid vehicles to use.”

Mr. DeVent had just congratulated the Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield on her leadership and was encouraging new ideas to combat global warming.

He said: “Energy and fuel efficiency is going to become a problem that we’re going to have to face more and more as we go forward.

“And the sooner that we can begin to embrace alternate needs of transportation, particularly hybrid vehicles, and I think that’s something both Ministers can get together and be the first. And Environment should lead the way.”

Mr. DeVent, who is former Works and Engineering Minister, concluded by saying: “Our overuse and over reliance on fossil fuels will become an issue for us to face in the future.”

Mr. Simons also said to the Government: “I beg you to be visionary and look forward.”

He shared a story with members about a huge chunk of cliff face which has collapsed recently on the South Shore. He blamed the eroding coastline on global warming and sea level rise.

The comments in the House come one week after a six-day series on global warming presented by The Royal Gazette. The series examined coastal erosion, hurricane intensification and renewable energy resources. Ms Butterfield gave a Cabinet-level commitment to the issue when she showed the Oscar winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” to a collection of high school students recently.