A plan to implement solar-powered electric vehicle chargers as part of Trinidad and Tobago’s plan to meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement is a start, but not a particularly compelling one.
The Paris Agreement hasn’t been on any visible government agenda since TT assented to be part of efforts to slow climate change in 2016.
In December 2018, the framework for the implementation of the Paris Agreement was defined in Katowice, Poland. Hovering over those discussions was a report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that called for an urgent commitment to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
TT ratified its participation in the agreement in February 2018, committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport, power-generation and industrial sectors by 15 per cent by 2030.
Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis is now aiming for zero emissions at a future, still-undefined date.
But that will depend on citizens, the private sector and the government pushing vigorously together in the same direction.
TT’s efforts to drive that change have been negligible when they haven't been negative. The country’s environment ministry, if any, is usually tacked on to some other ministry considered more important, and heard from rarely, if ever. In its current minimal incarnation, Ms Robinson-Regis is “Planning and Development Minister, with responsibility for the environment.”
Tax breaks on hybrid and electric vehicles were eliminated, and LNG vehicles remain a marginal solution to the problem of reducing emissions.
In February 2018, a Mitigation, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system was announced, and the next step in the plan was said to be “consultation and co-operation with the key stakeholders.”
After two years, the MRV has data gaps and data collection needs tightening up, according to Kishan Kumarsingh, head of Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit of the Planning Ministry.
Submissions of MRVs, expected twice per decade, have been sluggish globally, according to the UN Climate Change Secretariat, and less than half of the signatories have submitted a first report.
Mr Kumarsingh says the project is expected to proceed on a self-reporting basis, with industries responsible for creating almost 75 per cent of this country’s greenhouse gases submitting data voluntarily.
Where are the results of those stakeholder discussions, particularly those in the energy and industrial sectors which make up so much of this country's emissions profile?
The history of global industrial pollution suggests that the Planning Ministry should be building its own spot-checking and verification into any self-reporting system that’s expected to meet international standards for emissions control. Is the Environmental Management Authority ready for that challenge?
The Planning Ministry must be aware that accelerating climate change will hit the Caribbean region hard.
A more aggressive plan to conserve energy, limit use of fossil fuels and dramatically reduce emissions is needed
