T&T launches $4.85m net-zero project

Trinidad and To­ba­go has launched a four-year, US$4.85 mil­lion project aimed at re­duc­ing green­house gas emis­sions, pro­tect­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty and pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.

The ini­tia­tive, fund­ed by the Glob­al En­vi­ron­ment Fa­cil­i­ty, was in­tro­duced at a work­shop at the Hilton Trinidad and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre on Oc­to­ber 22.

It is be­ing im­ple­ment­ed by the Unit­ed Na­tions En­vi­ron­ment Pro­gramme, with the Min­istry of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment and the Unit­ed Na­tions De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme serv­ing as ex­e­cut­ing agen­cies.

The project aims to de­vel­op a Na­tion­al Net-Ze­ro, Na­ture-Pos­i­tive Strat­e­gy, sup­port­ed by an en­er­gy tran­si­tion roadmap and fi­nanc­ing and in­vest­ment strate­gies.

It will al­so strength­en cli­mate and bio­di­ver­si­ty da­ta sys­tems, as­sess the so­cial and eco­nom­ic ef­fects of the tran­si­tion, and im­prove co­or­di­na­tion across gov­ern­ment and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Plan­ning Can­dice Ram­saran said the tran­si­tion must bal­ance cli­mate com­mit­ments with na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment pri­or­i­ties, pro­tect liveli­hoods and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth.

She said the Min­istry wants prac­ti­cal out­comes that re­main sus­tain­able be­yond the project’s four-year im­ple­men­ta­tion pe­ri­od.

UN­EP Re­gion­al Di­rec­tor Juan Bel­lo said achiev­ing a net-ze­ro econ­o­my re­quires not on­ly re­duc­ing emis­sions but al­so pro­tect­ing ecosys­tems and en­sur­ing com­mu­ni­ties ben­e­fit from the tran­si­tion.

UNDP As­sis­tant Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Shar­i­fa Ali-Ab­dul­lah de­scribed the ini­tia­tive as an eco­nom­ic, com­pet­i­tive­ness, jobs and sur­vival agen­da.

Planned ac­tiv­i­ties in­clude re­new­able en­er­gy reg­u­la­to­ry re­forms, sus­tain­able mo­bil­i­ty ini­tia­tives and fi­nanc­ing mech­a­nisms to sup­port green in­vest­ment.

The project will al­so ex­plore demon­stra­tion in­vest­ments in sus­tain­able mo­bil­i­ty and en­er­gy tran­si­tion across Trinidad, along­side a na­ture-pos­i­tive eco­tourism ini­tia­tive in To­ba­go.

Tech­ni­cal work­ing groups will be es­tab­lished to guide im­ple­men­ta­tion, while ex­perts and con­sul­tants will be re­cruit­ed to un­der­take base­line as­sess­ments, mod­el­ling and pol­i­cy de­vel­op­ment.