Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PORTOFSPAIN1159
2007-11-29 20:42:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Port Of Spain
Cable title:  

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S TAKE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Tags:  SENV KGHG ENRG TD 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9538
PP RUEHGR
DE RUEHSP #1159/01 3332042
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 292042Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT OF SPAIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8837
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE 0489
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0019
RHMCSUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT OF SPAIN 001159 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR OES/EGC
SAN JOSE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HUB BERNIE LINK

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV KGHG ENRG TD
SUBJECT: TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S TAKE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

REF: (A) POS 584, (B) USUN NEW Y 1040

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT OF SPAIN 001159

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR OES/EGC
SAN JOSE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HUB BERNIE LINK

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SENV KGHG ENRG TD
SUBJECT: TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S TAKE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

REF: (A) POS 584, (B) USUN NEW Y 1040

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Energy-rich Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is not the
typical tourism-dependant, energy importing Caribbean nation, and at
the upcoming UN Climate Change conference, its position may be less
defined than that of its neighbors. With its industrial base and
high per capita greenhouse gas emissions, T&T is still in the
process of developing its climate change policies. While sharing
the goal of worldwide emissions reductions to achieve less than a
two degree Celsius temperature increase, T&T is more interested in
increasing resources for adaptation to climate change and gaining
access to related technologies than seeking punitive caps. Post
believes T&T officials would welcome dialogue and engagement on
these topics as they begin to formulate climate change policies.
END SUMMARY.

--------------
T&T: ENERGY-RICH SIDS
--------------


2. (U) Similar to other small island developing states (SIDS) in the
Caribbean, T&T is concerned about the potential consequences of
climate change, especially sea level rise, weather pattern
disruptions and increasingly frequent catastrophic events. However,
T&T's natural circumstances, and thus its motivations, are quite
different. Unlike its tourism-dependent neighbors, T&T exports
natural gas and oil and has developed a significant industrial base.
Thus, while its Caribbean brethren are concentrating on developing
renewable energy to lower their high energy bill and to reduce
emissions that could be catastrophic for their tourism industries,
T&T subsidizes gasoline and offers extremely low-cost electric power
as a way to locally "share" the wealth. As a result, T&T ranks as
one of the top ten per capita carbon emitters worldwide and almost
last in its use of alternative energy sources, with many plans on
the drawing board but only a handful of solar water heaters actually
in place.

-------------- --------------
GOTT on Climate Change: Adaptation Then Mitigation
-------------- --------------

3. (U) The GOTT started to examine the potential local impact of
climate change as early as the 1990s when it formed the

Cabinet-appointed "Working Group to Determine the Implications of
Global Warming, Climate Change and Sea Level Rise," now headed by
the Environmental Management Authority (EMA). In 2001, the Working
Group released its Initial National Communication under the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change, providing an inventory of
T&T's greenhouse gases by sector, a vulnerability analysis, and an
analysis of research and training needed in order to develop the
appropriate future mitigation and adaptation strategy. It is
currently drafting a second communication, intended to provide a
more accurate assessment of emissions and propose options for
reducing these and adapting to climate change.


4. (SBU) While T&T recognizes the dangers posed by climate change,
little has been done since the first national communication to
mitigate emissions or put measures in place for adaptation. Prime
Minister Patrick Manning announced on November 26, on the margins of
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda, that he has
tasked Emily Dick-Forde, the newly appointed Minister of Planning,
Housing and the Environment with developing a proposal for
addressing greenhouse gases. He added upon his return from Uganda
that T&T will continue to "use the gas we have," though he mused
about implementing carbon scrubbing technologies for existing and
future energy sector plants to address carbon dioxide emissions. It
remains to be seen whether, and how quickly, these proposals are
implemented.


5. (SBU) Adaptation strategies also are of increasing interest to
the GOTT. Kishan Kumarsingh, chair of the T&T Cabinet-appointed
Working Group and of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and
Technological Advice (SBSTA) of U.N. Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC),acknowledged to EconOff that T&T should do more to
reduce emissions, and he asserted it will. At the same time, he
stated that adaptation rather than mitigation is T&T's priority, a
view he justified by pointing out that his nation lacks market
incentives to reduce energy consumption and develop alternative
energy sources. He also noted that reducing T&T's emissions will
have little impact on the global equation, since its share of global
emissions is not significant. Adaptation, meanwhile, is critical
because T&T and other SIDS will be disproportionately affected by
climate change.


PORT OF SP 00001159 002 OF 002



6. (U) The idea that adaptation rather than mitigation should be a
T&T and Caribbean focus was the subject of debate at two
international conferences on climate change held in Port of Spain in
June (ref A) and at subsequent local events. Many, including
Kumarsingh, agree T&T should do its part to reduce emissions,
especially as the Caribbean would accrue the greatest marginal gain
from global emissions reductions. John Agard, chairman of the EMA
and member of the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change,
also recently urged the GOTT to provide economic incentives, such as
tax credits, for the private sector to invest in alternative energy
sources and to implement and set targets for existing wind and solar
energy proposals. At the same time, many feel that since the
Caribbean will be disproportionately affected by a problem caused
primarily by others, "northern" countries or other big emitters
should bear prime responsibility for reducing global emissions,
while the Caribbean deserves greater assistance for adaptation and
mitigation (ref B).

--------------
T&T in International Negotiations
--------------


7. (SBU) Asked about GOTT priorities in international climate change
negotiations, Kumarsingh stated that T&T is firmly aligned with
other SIDS in calling for meaningful emissions reductions to achieve
less than a two degree Celsius increase in temperature from
pre-industrial times. However, he agreed that the means for
reaching this goal are open for discussion. Unsurprisingly,
Kumarsingh also felt strongly that more resources should be devoted
to adaptation. Another priority for T&T is increasing access to
climate change related technologies. As former Vice Chair and Chair
of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer under the UNFCCC,
Kumarsingh argued that intellectual property "barriers" often made
these technologies prohibitively expensive for the SIDS that need
them most. He believes that mechanisms should be developed to
increase access to such technology.


8. (SBU) COMMENT: For the last thirty years, T&T has pursued a
policy of using its oil and natural gas to leverage industrial
development, and over the last five years the GOTT has developed an
explicit goal of achieving developed country status by 2020. Prime
Minister Manning campaigned for a new term on this platform.
Opposition party attempts to make the environment a campaign issue
had little appeal to the majority of voters enjoying economic
prosperity and more worried about crime and traffic congestion.
Following the ruling party November 5 election victory, we do not
foresee the GOTT changing course and making climate change a major
policy concern. We do, however, expect more rhetorical flourishes
in this area, if only to allow the GOTT to have a "track record" it
can fall back upon when it hosts the 2009 Commonwealth Summit.


9. (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED: Local commentators, and former Vice
President Gore, have suggested a Caribbean UN voting bloc could help
advance international action on climate change. While Kumarsingh
said that T&T concurs with its CARICOM counterparts on climate
change, it will be less open to binding emission caps than others.
Reflecting that this issue may be in the mind of policy-makers here,
Prime Minister Manning noted upon his return from the Commonwealth
Summit that his nation might incur "penalties" under a Kyoto
Protocol regime when T&T achieves developed nation status. Given
its natural resources and industrial profile, cooperation on
adaptation strategies and technologies, as well as disaster
preparedness, may be the most constructive way to engage T&T on
climate change as it moves to develop climate change policies. Such
cooperation might help T&T maintain its focus on new technology and
adaptation methods despite the counter-pull of remaining inside a
potentially more vociferous CARICOM "consensus." END COMMENT.

AUSTIN