With a new year now underway, it is worth considering a global issue with huge ramifications for Bermuda.

Its importance to the Island was emphasised when Premier Ewart Brown recently went to Copenhagen to observe the Climate Change conference and to lobby on behalf of the British Overseas Territories.

It may seem that there is little Bermuda can do to reverse the course of global warming on its own, but this is not strictly true.

To be sure, Bermuda is small, and its own contribution to carbon emissions and the like is negligible, at least on a per country basis.

But the potential for disaster is all too real. Rises in sea levels would have disastrous consequences for the Island, as would increased acidification of the oceans, which has the potential to destroy the coral reefs on which the Island depends. Here the necessity of joining with other at risk islands like the Maldives, Cayman, the Bahamas and the like is inarguable. Alone, each island can do little. Together there is a strong moral and humanitarian case that must be made.

Secondly, Bermuda is home to one of the pre-eminent ocean researchers in the field. The Bermuda Institute for Oceanic Science has more long term data and expertise on changes in the temperature and composition of the oceans than almost any other institution. This expertise is crucial for backing up the Island's concerns with solid science, and despite Climategate, the science for climate change is solid.

What else can Bermuda do? The fact that any contribution Bermuda can make will be small is not the point. The Island is small enough – and wealthy enough – to show that better environmental practices can work. In that way, the Island can be an example to the world. And if we are going to lecture others on environmental practices, then we must walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

There is a more practical reason as well. Opinion is divided on how long the world's oil reserves will last, but Bermuda cannot take the risk that the supply is infinite. Further, Bermuda is very nearly 100 percent dependent on oil as a fossil fuel, and gas as the other main source of energy. Both sources are distant from Bermuda and subject to dramatic and sudden price changes as was seen in 2008.

And it makes no sense to be so dependent on fossil fuels when both wind and sun are available, and ocean currents also present the potential for cheap and clean energy production. The cost of all of these technologies is now dropping quickly, which will make alternative energy production more cost effective. The other problem, of being able to sell energy into the power grid, and of Belco being able to get a consistent and reliable supply is now close to being solved.

The work of the Energy Ministry should not be ignored here either; there is a good deal more to be done, but the recent Green Paper laid out solid options and the formation of the Energy Commission should also help.

One action that should be taken in the next Budget, and in spite of economic constraints, is the encouragement, through tax relief and other means, of electric vehicles. This could even include a programme like the US cash for clunkers scheme, except this would involve electric cars and bikes being bought.

So Bermuda needs to do three things:

Lobby foreign governments and international institutions on behalf of small islands;

Lead by example by introducing alternative energy systems; and

Make the ownership of electric cars and bikes easier.

And it needs to do them quickly.