Trinidad and Tobago has taken another step towards the mitigation/reduction of its Greenhouse Gas Emissions with the updating of its Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, which was revealed at the Stakeholder Consultations for Trinidad and Tobago’s draft National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
The consultations, which took place from January 22-23, 2020, were hosted by the Ministry of Planning and Development through the Environmental Policy and Planning Division, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme.
“You cannot manage what you do not measure. This is especially applicable in the mitigation/reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Sindy Singh, Climate Change Specialist attached to the Ministry of Planning. She further stated that in order to “determine where opportunities exist to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions an inventory of emissions must be done”. The inventory quantifies the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in Trinidad and Tobago. The reporting of inventories is also an obligation of Trinidad and Tobago as a ratified signatory of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Since 2018, activity data was collected from emitters across the economy within the Energy and Industry sector, the Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use Sector and the Waste and Waste Water Sector, which was compiled into a draft greenhouse gas inventory using the internationally prescribed methodology of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2006 Guidelines).
The Consultation served to provide the entities that submitted data the opportunity to validate the inventory but to also bring into the focus the co-operation needed to achieve the shared goal of reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
An updated inventory on greenhouse gases will bolster ongoing efforts to implement Trinidad and Tobago’s Carbon Reduction Strategy, and achieve our international climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC to reduce greenhouse gas emissions also known as Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which are also incorporated into the goals set in Vision 2030.