VZCZCXRO9538
PP RUEHGR
DE RUEHSP #1159/01 3332042
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 292042Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT OF SPAIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8837
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE 0489
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0019
RHMCSUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT OF SPAIN 001159 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/EGC 
SAN JOSE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HUB BERNIE LINK 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV KGHG ENRG TD
SUBJECT: TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S TAKE ON CLIMATE CHANGE 
 
REF: (A) POS 584, (B) USUN NEW Y 1040 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Energy-rich Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is not the 
typical tourism-dependant, energy importing Caribbean nation, and at 
the upcoming UN Climate Change conference, its position may be less 
defined than that of its neighbors.  With its industrial base and 
high per capita greenhouse gas emissions, T&T is still in the 
process of developing its climate change policies.  While sharing 
the goal of worldwide emissions reductions to achieve less than a 
two degree Celsius temperature increase, T&T is more interested in 
increasing resources for adaptation to climate change and gaining 
access to related technologies than seeking punitive caps.  Post 
believes T&T officials would welcome dialogue and engagement on 
these topics as they begin to formulate climate change policies. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------- 
T&T: ENERGY-RICH SIDS 
--------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Similar to other small island developing states (SIDS) in the 
Caribbean, T&T is concerned about the potential consequences of 
climate change, especially sea level rise, weather pattern 
disruptions and increasingly frequent catastrophic events.  However, 
T&T's natural circumstances, and thus its motivations, are quite 
different.  Unlike its tourism-dependent neighbors, T&T exports 
natural gas and oil and has developed a significant industrial base. 
 Thus, while its Caribbean brethren are concentrating on developing 
renewable energy to lower their high energy bill and to reduce 
emissions that could be catastrophic for their tourism industries, 
T&T subsidizes gasoline and offers extremely low-cost electric power 
as a way to locally "share" the wealth.  As a result, T&T ranks as 
one of the top ten per capita carbon emitters worldwide and almost 
last in its use of alternative energy sources, with many plans on 
the drawing board but only a handful of solar water heaters actually 
in place. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
GOTT on Climate Change: Adaptation Then Mitigation 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
¶3. (U) The GOTT started to examine the potential local impact of 
climate change as early as the 1990s when it formed the 
Cabinet-appointed "Working Group to Determine the Implications of 
Global Warming, Climate Change and Sea Level Rise," now headed by 
the Environmental Management Authority (EMA).  In 2001, the Working 
Group released its Initial National Communication under the UN 
Framework Convention on Climate Change, providing an inventory of 
T&T's greenhouse gases by sector, a vulnerability analysis, and an 
analysis of research and training needed in order to develop the 
appropriate future mitigation and adaptation strategy.  It is 
currently drafting a second communication, intended to provide a 
more accurate assessment of emissions and propose options for 
reducing these and adapting to climate change. 
 
¶4. (SBU) While T&T recognizes the dangers posed by climate change, 
little has been done since the first national communication to 
mitigate emissions or put measures in place for adaptation.  Prime 
Minister Patrick Manning announced on November 26, on the margins of 
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda, that he has 
tasked Emily Dick-Forde, the newly appointed Minister of Planning, 
Housing and the Environment with developing a proposal for 
addressing greenhouse gases.  He added upon his return from Uganda 
that T&T will continue to "use the gas we have," though he mused 
about implementing carbon scrubbing technologies for existing and 
future energy sector plants to address carbon dioxide emissions.  It 
remains to be seen whether, and how quickly, these proposals are 
implemented. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Adaptation strategies also are of increasing interest to 
the GOTT.  Kishan Kumarsingh, chair of the T&T Cabinet-appointed 
Working Group and of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and 
Technological Advice (SBSTA) of U.N. Framework Convention on Climate 
Change (UNFCCC), acknowledged to EconOff that T&T should do more to 
reduce emissions, and he asserted it will.  At the same time, he 
stated that adaptation rather than mitigation is T&T's priority, a 
view he justified by pointing out that his nation lacks market 
incentives to reduce energy consumption and develop alternative 
energy sources.  He also noted that reducing T&T's emissions will 
have little impact on the global equation, since its share of global 
emissions is not significant.  Adaptation, meanwhile, is critical 
because T&T and other SIDS will be disproportionately affected by 
climate change. 
 
 
PORT OF SP 00001159  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶6. (U) The idea that adaptation rather than mitigation should be a 
T&T and Caribbean focus was the subject of debate at two 
international conferences on climate change held in Port of Spain in 
June (ref A) and at subsequent local events.  Many, including 
Kumarsingh, agree T&T should do its part to reduce emissions, 
especially as the Caribbean would accrue the greatest marginal gain 
from global emissions reductions.  John Agard, chairman of the EMA 
and member of the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, 
also recently urged the GOTT to provide economic incentives, such as 
tax credits, for the private sector to invest in alternative energy 
sources and to implement and set targets for existing wind and solar 
energy proposals.  At the same time, many feel that since the 
Caribbean will be disproportionately affected by a problem caused 
primarily by others, "northern" countries or other big emitters 
should bear prime responsibility for reducing global emissions, 
while the Caribbean deserves greater assistance for adaptation and 
mitigation (ref B). 
 
--------------------------------- 
T&T in International Negotiations 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Asked about GOTT priorities in international climate change 
negotiations, Kumarsingh stated that T&T is firmly aligned with 
other SIDS in calling for meaningful emissions reductions to achieve 
less than a two degree Celsius increase in temperature from 
pre-industrial times.  However, he agreed that the means for 
reaching this goal are open for discussion.  Unsurprisingly, 
Kumarsingh also felt strongly that more resources should be devoted 
to adaptation.  Another priority for T&T is increasing access to 
climate change related technologies.  As former Vice Chair and Chair 
of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer under the UNFCCC, 
Kumarsingh argued that intellectual property "barriers" often made 
these technologies prohibitively expensive for the SIDS that need 
them most.  He believes that mechanisms should be developed to 
increase access to such technology. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) COMMENT:  For the last thirty years, T&T has pursued a 
policy of using its oil and natural gas to leverage industrial 
development, and over the last five years the GOTT has developed an 
explicit goal of achieving developed country status by 2020.  Prime 
Minister Manning campaigned for a new term on this platform. 
Opposition party attempts to make the environment a campaign issue 
had little appeal to the majority of voters enjoying economic 
prosperity and more worried about crime and traffic congestion. 
Following the ruling party November 5 election victory, we do not 
foresee the GOTT changing course and making climate change a major 
policy concern.  We do, however, expect more rhetorical flourishes 
in this area, if only to allow the GOTT to have a "track record" it 
can fall back upon when it hosts the 2009 Commonwealth Summit. 
 
¶9. (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED: Local commentators, and former Vice 
President Gore, have suggested a Caribbean UN voting bloc could help 
advance international action on climate change.  While Kumarsingh 
said that T&T concurs with its CARICOM counterparts on climate 
change, it will be less open to binding emission caps than others. 
Reflecting that this issue may be in the mind of policy-makers here, 
Prime Minister Manning noted upon his return from the Commonwealth 
Summit that his nation might incur "penalties" under a Kyoto 
Protocol regime when T&T achieves developed nation status.  Given 
its natural resources and industrial profile, cooperation on 
adaptation strategies and technologies, as well as disaster 
preparedness, may be the most constructive way to engage T&T on 
climate change as it moves to develop climate change policies.  Such 
cooperation might help T&T maintain its focus on new technology and 
adaptation methods despite the counter-pull of remaining inside a 
potentially more vociferous CARICOM "consensus."  END COMMENT. 
 
AUSTIN