It's been two years since the Golding administration has been in power in Jamaica and it is appropriate to compare their achievements against their promises. Six months from now they will be half-way through their constitutional term of office. By new we should be seeing some results.

The obvious list of promises to use in the comparison is the 2007 Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) manifesto, which is supposed to be a statement of what the party stands for and what they intend to do if they win the election. For some, though, and I am not saying this is the case here, the main purpose of a manifesto (especially for a party long in Opposition) is to attract votes to win the election, and some might be desperate enough to promise anything to win. In such a case, there is really little intention to honour any promise or promises made there and this sort of manifesto is not worth the paper it is written on.

The very least that should be expected is that the manifesto shows an appreciation of the problems and shows some sort of promising policy direction. Parties long in opposition would have had a long time to plan the strategies they would implement if they ever won an election.

Despite the fact that the colour of the JLP is green, the environmental section of the 2009 Election Manifesto was not coherent and did not show even a moderate appreciation of the issues, and I said so at the time. For example, the manifesto is littered with the word 'sustainable', and only in a few places is the usage appropriate. The section (26) is entitled: "A clean, safe, productive and sustainable environment", and the first paragraph states: "Our environment impacts on our quality of life and the sustainability of our natural resources." This is 'speaky-spokey' language at its very best and shows lack of understanding of the meaning of the words 'environment' and 'sustainable'.

With this confusion at the conceptual level, it is not unreasonable to expect confusion at the policy level and in implementation.

The JLP's term began with the Environment portfolio being joined with health under Rudyard Spencer.

Unclear

After a few months, it appeared that the portfolio had been shifted to the Office of the Prime Minister but the name 'Environment' remained attached to the health ministry. For a long time it was unclear to whom environmental matters should be referred, even now it is somewhat unclear, as although the prime minister is officially the minister of the environment, he does not seem to have his hands on the reins.

There is well-known conflict between environmental conservation and development pressures, and the prime minister made it clear on which side he stood by appointing a pro-development activist as chairman of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA). It did not take Nostradamus to predict the conflict which has ensued, which has led to the resignation of at least two board members and, ultimately, to the resignation of the chairman himself. Until now, no new chairman of the NRCA board has been appointed.

The Government's environmental house is rather untidy, to say the least.

In its Manifesto the JLP pledges to "Establish a stand-alone National Environmental Authority with statutory powers to protect the environment and regulate activities that impact thereon" (26.1). In the two years a concept paper has been prepared it has not been shared with many people, and so that idea has not gone very far.

Pledge Number 2: "Set and enforce standards governing land use, water quality and the utilisation of water, air quality, emissions, sanitation and solid waste management and the protection of marine and coastal resources" (26.2). Maybe the Government is waiting for the new National Environmental Authority to be formed to do all this, for it has not yet been done.

"Protect Jamaica's wildlife, especially its endemic species, and develop a recovery plan for endangered species". No action yet.

They didn't promise much and, after two years, even what they promised has not been delivered. I am not sure the JLP understands the portfolio or seriously has Jamaica's environment at heart.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.