Trinidad and Tobago is caught between a rock and a hard place, says Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis in its thrust to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and promoting economic growth.
Speaking at the Energy Chamber’s Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference 2022 on Tuesday, Robinson-Regis said the reality that TT was an oil and gas-based economy meant that the economic impacts of reduced revenue through reduced demand for fossil fuels can have a serious impact on the prospects for economic growth.
She said that TT must find ways to achieve its commitment to the Paris Agreement and maintain its economy through diversification and climate investments. “TT as a carbon-intensive economy, therefore, also has an obligation to diversify and decarbonise its economy towards meeting obligations under the Paris Agreement. The Government has acknowledged that the global energy transition to low carbon is inevitable, and well underway, in order to avoid catastrophic climate change, and that TT to be part of that transition if it is to not be left behind, therefore needs to get on board as a matter of urgency.”
She said while to shift will incur unintended socio-economic impacts, Government has identified and recognised the importance of creating an enabling working environment through its Just Transition of the Workforce Policy.
The policy hopes to provide substantial economic and social benefits, mitigating and preventing both social and economic disruption from a low-carbon transition, along with potentially creating new jobs and new types of sustainable work, Robinson-Regis said.
“This would provide the policy framework for not only creating the green workforce, but also facilitating the retooling, reskilling, and re-schooling of the existing workforce, a large amount of which comes from the energy industries, to take advantage of the emerging opportunities and minimising potential fallout from unemployability.
“The draft policy outlines the measures needed to smoothly facilitate the transition of TT to a low carbon economy while creating opportunities for the workforce presently engaged in the carbon intensive oil and gas sector. Further, the policy seeks to enable a low-carbon development pathway, while also reducing negative impact on affected workers, aiding the vulnerable and marginalised groups in society, and encouraging investment and education in new low-carbon technologies and pathways that will benefit the nation.”
Robinson-Regis said diversification and investment in green hydrogen was a win-win situation for all stakeholders and was a key example of how TT could maintain and increase its competitiveness in the petrochemical sector.
An area for upcoming and potential business transactions was the European Green Deal, she pointed out, which was poised to implement carbon border adjustment measures such as a tax on imports of goods depending on the carbon content of its raw materials and manufacturing processes.
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