TT can save the world, pocket some cash

KIRAN MATHUR MOHAMMED

kmmpub@gmail.com

What if tackling climate change could create jobs and profits for TT?

Bouncing around the Hyatt-Hilton conference circuit can make anyone a bit queasy, and more than a bit jaded. The darling topics of international lenders and diplomats can seem light years away from the good ole “man on the street” (by the way, I’ve often been told this paper has long been known as “d paper for d man in d red band maxi”).

Take climate change. The thought of it seems very far removed. Our concerns are understandably more visceral. We are trapped in concrete boxes, hoping to avoid becoming the next opportunistic target of a young man’s careless rage. Or we watch our pocketbooks – imaginations buried alive in unpaid bills.

We know the toll that that climate change is set to extract. Rising floods have claimed livelihoods and lives; blisteringly hot days have become the norm alongside chilly ones. Even small changes in sea level caused by melting ice caps have the potential to return reclaimed land to swamps. We’re a frog boiling in a pot.

Just as there is “a Trini in everything,” several have been prominent in this latest crisis: Prof John Agard was one of the first to warn the world of the consequences of a 1.5-degree rise in temperature, as part of the Nobel-prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Our government has signed on to the Paris Agreement, pledging to reduce emissions by 15 per cent in ten years.

Yet despite all this, climate change still feels far from most people’s reality. The truth is that even if we could become completely carbon-neutral, we’d have all the impact of a small Chinese town. But the beauty of being in a small country with a still verdant environment and tracts of bush means that we don’t necessarily need to sacrifice to save the planet – we can make some cash out of it.

Joining the fight against climate change can stuff our pocketbooks with green. As of 2019, global carbon markets hit US$215 billion, having grown fivefold since 2017. With companies scrambling for ways to lower the costs of carbon, organisations that can actively reduce carbon costs are becoming increasingly valuable.

In some countries, mainly in Europe, governments have set caps on the amount of carbon that can be emitted. Carbon credits are permits allowing the holder to emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. Companies or countries are given a certain number of tradable credits. If you want to emit more carbon dioxide, you must buy credits from a company that has cut its carbon usage, or one that actively is working to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Planting trees helps extract carbon from the atmosphere. That means that if you start a company or even a non-profit like our Fondes Amandes Reafforestation Centre, you stand a good chance of generating carbon credits and selling it off in carbon markets.

Now money doesn’t quite grow on trees. First you must get the green blessing from a reputable carbon registry like Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard or the American Carbon Registry. This requires the ability to fill out heaps of documentation and can gobble tens of thousands of dollars upfront. But those that make it through the slog can access lucrative supply agreements with purchasers of carbon credits, provided that landowners supply a certain amount of carbon storage – that is, trees – for an extended period of time.

The climate crisis has amplified the voice of small islands, with leaders from Barbados’s Mia Mottley to Jamaica’s Andrew Holness raising their voices. This is a chance for our countries to punch above our weight. Holness co-chairs the UN Climate Change Financing Initiative alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. We can join them

And we should act quickly. The world’s largest fund manager, Blackrock, with US$7 trillion under management, announced two weeks ago that it will begin to exit investments in coal, introduce funds with no fossil-fuel stocks and vote against management that isn't managing climate change risks. We must not be left behind as capital moves away from fossil fuels and related downstream industries.

The timing is right: the voluntary carbon credit is booming as consumers increasingly demand climate-friendly policies from their airlines and others. Even more importantly: China launches a full-scale carbon-credit system this year. The market is set to become a veritable hotpot. We should tuck in.

Who says you can’t save the world and pocket some cash at the same time?

Kiran Mathur Mohammed is a social entrepreneur, economist and businessman. He is a former banker and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh.