Government climate change reversal?

THE EDITOR: I am astounded at the political stance of some of our politicians.

TT is a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and also the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Global warming is a major factor affecting climate change and coal, because of its high carbon content, emits more CO2 than any other fossil fuel when it’s burned.

Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland have decided to ditch coal and 40 other countries are in the process of phasing it out.

Coal is a fossil fuel and is the dirtiest of them all, responsible for over 0.3 degrees Celsius of the one degree Celsius increase in global average temperature. This makes it the single largest source of global temperature rise.

The Prime Minister, at the Energy Efficiency and Renewables Conference in 2020, noted: “While other countries focused their attention on moving away from ‘dirty’ energy sources such as coal, TT is comfortably ahead of the curve…” Earlier this year Energy Minister Stuart Young engaged in a panel discussion on energy in Suriname where he chastised European countries for returning to the use of coal amidst the Russia-Ukraine war.

In light of the call by MP Keith Scotland to return to the use of coal, has the Government reversed its advocacy on climate change?

IMAAM IQUBAL HYDAL

Felicity