Young: Be real about energy transition

Minister of Energy Stuart Young in a strongly worded contribution at the Sustainable Energy conference held at the HYATT Regency in Port of Spain, called on leaders in the energy sector to “be real” about energy transition and what it would take for small island developing states, which produce less carbon than more developed states to meet these demands.

Speaking to several stakeholders in the energy industry, Young said that while several of the concepts that are commonly discussed are “nice sounding,” the reality is, several of the proposed practices are subject to bureaucracy and a lack of financing.

“Even if you speak to these countries that want us to reduce our emissions and our neighbours and we say lets talk about the bankability of the projects, its consultant after consultant to do feasibility studies but where is the reality?”

He pointed out that that Latin America and Caricom combined only produce 2.9 per cent of the global carbon emissions, yet the region is the one that feels the effects.

“We in the Caribbean region, the small developing island economies are seeing the immediate effects of climate change. Coastal erosion, droughts, the unnatural amount of rainfall and flooding and the reality for us is how do we afford these nice sounding concepts that in my view are being pushed on us by rich developing countries,” he said.

He knocked the more developed countries on the pressure being put on developing states without support, speaking about several shocks and factors such as the Ukraine/Russia war and President Joe Biden’s passing of the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which would include a record US$369 billion in spending on climate and energy policies and provides tax credits to consumers who buy electric cars made in the US which could reduce competitiveness for other countries around the world.

“One of the speakers spoke about the US and the IRA. Just by the introduction of the IRA, that one passage of legislation by President Biden, shifted dynamically the whole landscape in this area,” he said. “What that has done is pull resources from the rest of the world to the US. What does that mean? it pushes up the price of renewables.”

He also complained about bureaucracy in passing legislation for clean energy projects.

“I am frustrated with speed as well. As the permanent secretary, staff and ministry of energy would tell you, because I realise with energy how volatile it is.”

He however maintained that while TT will do all it can to reduce its carbon footprint, energy security is the Government’s first priority.

“Russia goes to war with Ukraine, and Europe’s reactions is to start back up coal plants – the worst emitter of carbons. Nobody talks about that. But they had to because they needed to provide energy for their citizens.”

“What we in TT are going to do with no apologies whatsoever is we will continue using and utilising our God-given resources of oil and gas because that is what keeps our economy going.”