EMA trains UWI to monitor greenhouse-gas emissions

THE Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has held a training course for UWI academics to train students in emission monitoring and to act as consultants to industry.

The Ministry of Planning and Development held a ceremony at the Trinidad Hilton on September 5 at which about ten people received certificates of participation in the course .

Planning Minister Beckles-Robinson said, "The Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) was established to help build the international trust and confidence needed for the successful implementation of the Paris Agreement. It will be used to determine if countries are delivering on their climate promise of reducing greenhouse (gas) emissions."

She said the ETF will become standard for countries from 2024 onwards.

In 2015 the UN reached the Paris Agreement to try to limit global warming to 1.5-two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Under the agreement, each country, including Trinidad and Tobago, must report every five years on progress towards emission reductions as stated in its national determined contribution (NDC).

Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide (known as "carbon") plus certain outdated refrigerants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), when emitted, stay in the atmosphere, where they prevent infra-red radiation in the sun's rays from being reflected back into outer space. Instead they warm the earth, detrimentally. These are called greenhouse gases as they create the "greenhouse effect."

Beckles-Robinson said biennial transparency reports will empower TT to report on its greenhouse-gas emissions and monitor and assess the impacts of development interventions.

"By systematically tracking our progress with reliable and credible data, we will have the capacity to evaluate the effectiveness of our strategies in achieving the desired outcomes, and the corrective action that may be needed.

"We will then be able to use this information to make informed decisions that can help us achieve our national climate goals."

Beckles-Robinson said after training in July, UWI trainers now have the knowledge and teaching skills to pass on this expertise to TT's data suppliers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders.

"This will now enable the UWI to provide ongoing support and training to our national stakeholders, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet the technical and decision-making requirements of our ETF."

She linked the training to her ministry's plans to seek Cabinet's nod for monitoring, reporting and verification legislation to make reporting on greenhouse-gas emissions mandatory rather than voluntary.

EMA managing director Hayden Romano told Newsday of a capacity-building initiative for transparency (CBIT) in line with TT's obligations under the Paris Agreement.

"What we had was a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for greenhouse gases.

"What this whole CBIT does is really improve upon that. So what we now have is a National Transparency System (NTS). So the MRV has gone to an NTS which will report not only on greenhouse gases but on everything TT is doing in terms of achieving its commitments under the Paris Agreement, its national determined contributions. So it is a more comprehensive system."

Romano said the EMA had done a lot of training on this system, and the expectation was UWI would do further training.

"So there is 'train the trainer,' so that industry and everybody else will know what is required under this reporting system."

He said under the CBIT programme, the EMA developed the training materials, which were then handed over to UWI to train the trainers.

"All industry will have to report in terms of its greenhouse gas. Right now it is voluntary, but we are hoping that very soon there will be legislation to enforce industries."

The ministry's Kishan Kumarsingh said in 1998, work on TT's report to the UN on climate change had been done by a non-national.

"I thought we should be able to do it," he said. "We need to build that capacity and to institutionalise it. The idea is to wean ourselves off of dependence on international consultants."

Kumarsingh said new legislation was expected soon in TT to switch from voluntary to mandatory reporting of emissions by businesses/industries.

He hailed the ministry and EMA's partnership with UWI, which will allow industries to access an institutionalised system of training. He expected the academic training to be used across several different disciplines at UWI such as law and economics.

Malini Maraj, a participant of the programme, detailed her experience, describing it as intense but beneficial to her as an economics lecturer and researcher. She told Newsday she had learnt about climate change, its implications and understanding its applicability to TT.

“It was quite intense. For someone who would have had some background in climate change, I still had to go through the process of understanding the global infrastructure. That part of it meant familiarising myself with the multilateral framework of the Paris Agreement, the history behind the Paris Agreement and the dynamics of the clauses, the articles and the requirements within the Paris Agreement.

“I look forward to using it in terms of what I do, which is lecturing. I could see it actually benefiting them moving forward. I always look at possibilities to use what I do in the area of sustainable development and environmental economics. I see climate changes being applicable to health infrastructural development, agriculture and food security, sustainable livelihoods, and it can affect things like poverty and crime. I could see myself applying it to sustainable development and research material."

(With reporting by Kristen-Le Chelle Winchester)