Changing habits needs planning

It was with keen interest and warm hearts that interested citizens heard Energy Minister Stuart Young reiterate at last week’s launch of NGC Green that Trinidad and Tobago had to do something about global warming.

He acknowledged that our region is not immune to the effects of the planet heating up; in fact, we are among the most endangered countries regarding coastal erosion and rising sea levels.

We are also very at risk from the indisputable changing weather patterns that can cause havoc to lives and habitats. We have not yet had runaway bushfires fanned by severe winds or interminable rains that have destroyed reservoirs, families, livestock, homes and more as on the various continents but we have had enough of natural disasters to know their horror.

We also know that we live in an interconnected world where everyone is affected by everything happening elsewhere, either directly or indirectly. There is no hiding place.

Fossil-fuel usage is a major contributor to the global crisis, but TT lives by fossil fuels, so we have no option but to do our bit to slow the meltdown while looking after our affairs. We have to be on the minister’s side when he says we cannot be dictated to by those who caused the crisis in the first place, have achieved development and are even now reopening their polluting coal mines.

He is right, too, that if we shut down absolutely everything related to the energy sector – factories, cars, electricity generators etc – on our tiny twin-island country it will have little impact on climate change, since we only contribute less than one per cent of the global emissions that damage the environment.

However, that is not to say that every little bit does not add up.

The National Gas Company’s ongoing green objectives are encouraging. The Ministry of Energy is firmly behind the state company, which is striving to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and having an energy mix of 30 per cent renewables by 2030.

They look like long trajectories, given that global temperatures already are exceeding the taboo 1.5 degree threshold, but newer technology might hasten advance. NGC is being ambitious in, among other goals, attempting to reduce its heat-making methane output by 25 per cent by 2025 compared to 2021 and accelerating motorists’ usage of CNG.

The company has also invested in sustainable-energy projects, and claims TT’s solar projects can light 30,500 homes, saving 150,000 tonnes of natural gas.

TT is staking everything on NGC, which has become the country's channel for green and solar projects. NGC’s outgoing president, Mark Loquan, reportedly said NGC was lobbying industry and helping the light and commercial sectors to improve their energy efficiency.

This provokes further questions: a) what is the government’s role in that; and b) what about the citizens?

As responsible citizens, we should not be peripheral to the national march to sustainability. I advocate for a national government awareness campaign to build on NGC initiatives and educate us about the dangers we face and lead us in doing our parts, however small. To achieve success, all elements of society and industry must be on board. With nationwide information and buy-in we could help quicken transformation.

Changing habits and ways of thinking takes a while, but it is possible.

The UK government decided in the 1980s to run a national health campaign to reduce heart disease by educating people about the dangers of sugar consumption and of the traditional, beloved English fried breakfast – bacon, eggs, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans, potatoes.

It created a media blitz and sent targeted information to all business and school canteens about both the facts and the alternatives to a fry-up. Over time ordinary people became the messengers and nobody now advocates a regular traditional breakfast. Same with sugar. Vested interests denied the scientific evidence about sugar and mounted alternative media campaigns; however, promoting good health eventually beat financial interests.

Government also changed the narrative on smoking and seatbelts – people stopped smoking to avoid lung cancer and started wearing seatbelts to save their lives, not because of possibly being fined. That’s what we should be aiming for with changing habits here.

It is up to the government to devise the overall strategy and provide both the regulatory framework and encouragement to enable the change it obviously desires.

Currently, individuals wishing to use solar energy must negotiate separate licences with T&TEC. That is unworkable and is a disincentive. A green economy is a national long-term plan, not a series of projects by a state company, goading the private sector. Citizens will do their share through understanding the personal cost of wasting energy and resources and being incentivised to behave differently.

Getting behind the dwindling opportunities to recycle could be a starting point, as well as, for example, streamlining CEPEP operations to avoid weed proliferation by leaving endless plastic bags of grass cuttings for weeks to deteriorate on roadsides and highways.

We are thinking right, but it is clear we need more strategic planning, policy-making and implementation at the community level.