More to be done on climate change

Vehicles sit submerged in water in front their homes in Greenvale.
Vehicles sit submerged in water in front their homes in Greenvale.

The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations.

—Pope John Paul II

THE United Nations website says that Mother Earth Day (April 22) is celebrated to remind people that “the earth and its ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance.”

It goes on to further say Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet earth in a number of countries and regions, which reflects the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet all inhabit.

The website also states that climate change is today one of the biggest threats to sustainable development globally and “just one of many imbalances caused by the unsustainable actions of humankind, with direct implications for future generations.”

Dr Ainka Granderson of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute’s (Canari) says while a lot is being done in TT to address the issue of climate change there is also always more that can be done.

CANARI's Dr Ainka Granderson

Granderson is a senior technical officer and manager of climate change at Canari which is at Twelfth Street in Barataria. The institute is a “regional, technical, independent non-profit organisation that has been working for 30 years across the region, as well as the overseas territories to promote participatory natural resource management which really focuses on protecting important natural resources and eco-systems as well as building sustainable and resilient livelihoods,” Granderson said.

Climate change, the Australian Academy of Science website says is, “a change in the statistical properties of the climate system that persists for several decades or longer—usually at least 30 years.

“These statistical properties include averages, variability and extremes. Climate change may be due to natural processes, such as changes in the sun’s radiation, volcanoes or internal variability in the climate system, or due to human influences such as changes in the composition of the atmosphere or land use.”

There has already been noticeable change on the environment, NASA’s website says, with shrinking glaciers, plant and animal ranges shifting and tress flowering sooner. It says the future effects of climate change will include stronger and more intense hurricanes, sea level rise by one to four feet by 2100 and more droughts and heat waves.

At Canari’s office, Granderson said climate change is an urgent problem that requires urgent action at both the national and lower level (local government, civil society and private sector). These levels, she said, needed to come together and have a co-ordinated approach to addressing the impacts of climate change.

TT is signatory to the UN Convention on climate change and has developed a country policy. There is also a carbon reduction strategy and recently, the monitoring, reporting and verification framework was launched, “which is how you ensure that you are effectively monitoring and tracking your green house gas emissions and your contributions under the framework convention for climate change,” she said.

For her, this is “one really excellent start.” The Government’s investment in more compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles for public transport and pilot projects for renewable energy like solar panels represents this excellent start.

But where Granderson currently sees a gap is in TT’s lack of a national adaptation plan (NAP).

The plan “develops overarching policy guidelines for how you address the negative impacts of climate change on different sectors and levels of society.”

Granderson said most of the other Caribbean islands have or are in the process of developing a NAP and “TT is a little bit behind in that we focus a lot more on the side of reducing green house gas emissions which is known as mitigation rather than focusing on the adaptation side.”

This is the side where Granderson believes TT should be paying a lot more attention especially after last October’s devastating floods which affected many communities namely Greenvale, La Horquetta and St Helena.

“Even if we are not getting hit by hurricanes we are vulnerable to significant impacts from flooding and heavy rainfall during the rainy season.

“So we do have to think about how are we going to actually reduce our vulnerability and adapt to these risks which are likely to get worse with climate change,” she said.

There are some who question the existence of climate change. US president Donald Trump in a November 26 BBC article was quoted as having “accused climate change scientists of having a ‘political agenda’", telling Fox News, "he was unconvinced that humans were responsible for the earth's rising temperatures.”

The article also went on to say “after taking office he announced the US would withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, which commits another 187 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures ‘well below’ 2C above pre-industrial levels.”

While climate change, Granderson said, is often framed as an environmental problem, it is really a political one and, with politics involved, people’s interests and money also have to be thought of.

“So Donald Trump, in some ways represents, what some of the sort of larger interest, for example, companies, fossil fuel companies, kind of feel, which is that they can see that a push to reduce green house gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide which are produced by many of these companies, is actually going to affect their bottom line. They are very much against initiatives which they feel are going to affect their bottom line.”

While, she added, this is understandable in some ways, the bigger picture must be thought of which is that there are “significant costs” to climate change and related disaster like flooding, hurricanes coming out of season, “really strong hurricanes like Irma and Maria that are almost outside of the category five.”

She also referenced last year’s California wildfires.

“When you add up the costs of those impacts they are probably much greater than the money saved by supporting a few companies to maintain their bottom line,” Granderson said.

She added if dollars and cents were the main consideration, it made sense to address climate change and reduce its impacts.

Granderson quoted statistics from the 2012 Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre’s (CCCCC) Delivering Transformational Change 2011-21 which said “if GHG (green house gas) emissions are left unchecked, costs of inaction for Caribbean in terms of increased hurricane damage, infrastructure damage and loss of tourism revenue is projected to reach US $22 billion by 2050 or ten per cent of the current regional economy.”

A visit to CCCCC’s website also said the annual expected losses from wind, storm surge and inland flooding currently stand between one per cent and six per cent of national GDP, while in any particular year losses can be far greater.

Through her process of study (Granderson holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne) she has realised that “there is a lot of focus on human impacts on the environment but really and truly the solutions are also people driven.”

This has led her from being just a conservationist to someone who is “really interested in the connection between people and nature and really promoting sustainable use that not only protects the environment but helps local people to maintain their livelihoods and well-being.”

Earth Day Tip

Regularly Maintain Your Vehicle

If your vehicle’s engine is running correctly, the filters are clean and the tyres correctly inflated, the vehicle will be more efficient on fuel. This reduces pollution and saves you money. It’s worth cleaning out the trunk now and again too – extra weight uses extra fuel!

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