PNP spokesman calls for NEPA to be moved to environment ministry

Opposition spokesman on environment Omar Newell is urging the Government to transfer the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) from the economic growth ministry to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

“A ministry tasked with climate resilience and environmental protection cannot be fully effective if the country’s principal regulator remains outside its supervision,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “Policy without regulatory authority weakens coherence and accountability.”

He stressed that “the issue is not partisan, but structural.”

NEPA serves as the enforcement arm of Jamaica’s environmental regulator, the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA). The agency currently operates under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development, headed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Newell said NEPA and the NRCA should be realigned under the environment ministry.

“Environmental regulation must not only be independent, it must be seen to be independent. When the authority approving large-scale developments sits within the same portfolio driving those developments, the perception of conflict becomes unavoidable,” he said.

He added that environmental policy and regulatory oversight should be institutionally aligned with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, whose portfolio minister is Matthew Samuda.

“Environmental protection must never appear subordinate to economic expansion. Our governance framework must reflect long-term national interest,” Newell said.

He cited a previous governance structure during the second administration of former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, when NEPA operated within the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change. That arrangement, he said, provided environmental regulation with a clearer institutional home while formally integrating climate change at the ministerial level.

Newell also pointed to international examples, noting that in the United Kingdom, the Environment Agency operates under the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, while in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency functions as an independent federal agency.

“At a time when Jamaica faces stronger hurricanes, coastal erosion, and increasing water insecurity, we cannot afford governance arrangements that undermine confidence in environmental decision-making. Sustainable development requires balance, transparency, and structural integrity,” he added.

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