Top T&T climate diplomat resigns amid policy concerns

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lead cli­mate ne­go­tia­tor for 30 years, Kis­han Ku­mars­ingh, has re­signed as Head of Mul­ti­lat­er­al En­vi­ron­men­tal Agree­ments at the Min­istry of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment, cit­ing chal­lenges linked to changes in pol­i­cy di­rec­tion since May 2025.

In a state­ment post­ed on­line, Ku­mars­ingh said his res­ig­na­tion takes ef­fect on June 12, 2026.

“It has re­cent­ly be­come very chal­leng­ing to per­form my job func­tions giv­en changes in pol­i­cy di­rec­tion as of May 2025,” he wrote.

Ku­mars­ingh thanked col­leagues and peers for their sup­port through­out what he de­scribed as a “very re­ward­ing ca­reer in in­ter­na­tion­al en­vi­ron­men­tal and cli­mate change diplo­ma­cy over the past 30 years.”

He added that he looked for­ward to “writ­ing the next chap­ter” and of­fered his ex­per­tise to oth­ers in the field as a “rel­a­tive­ly free agent.”

Guardian Me­dia has reached out to Ku­mars­ingh and Min­is­ter of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs, and De­vel­op­ment, Kennedy Swarats­ingh for com­ment.