42 A B S T R A C T S FIFTH BIENNIAL CARIBBEAN ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM AND EXHIBITION
Are our laws and institutions ready for climate change? by Judy Daniel As pressure mounts on the developed world to curb greenhouse gases, the contribution of developing countries to climate change is being assessed. The reality is that just 20 percent of the world’s contributors account for about 90 percent of global emissions. Negotiations at last December’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen resulted in the Copenhagen Accord, an interim international agreement that includes $30 billion in financing by wealthy nations to help developing nations such as ours curb their emissions over the next three years (with a goal of increasing funding up to $100 billion by 2020). Of interest also is that the US is poised to introduce Cap-and Trade legislation, a pertinent aspect which allows their facilities to meet up to 15% of their emissions limits by purchasing credits on the international emission trading market. With the right planning small island <strong>Caribbean</strong> states could position themselves to obtain the assistance needed to adapt to climate change without compromising our national development. At the local and regional level climate change policy still falls within the remit of environmental and natural resources management agencies while for wealthy nations because of the significance of energy to their national economies it is undoubtedly a “make or break” economic issue that is housed in robust central agencies. Climate change as a phenomenon promises to negatively impact all of our resources and national development. Yet our laws and institutions remain set in a pre-climate era perhaps awaiting a jolt of reality and sense of remorse at how we could have availed ourselves of resources to stem these impacts. We must reform our thinking. Climate change is an enormous and complex national development issue with which we must treat through an appropriate institutional framework that is equipped to negotiate our climate future, mindful of our main objective - to secure our economic future. Given what’s at stake, are our environmental management agencies the best institutional venues for leading climate change issues? At a minimum should they be the sole venue? Most importantly, what are the plausible alternatives? The challenge of climate change requires a permanent change in the way our societies work and necessarily the way our laws and institutions are set out. This paper examines why we must act now, and proposes how the laws and institutions of <strong>Caribbean</strong> small islands can be designed to function in the wake of climate change and how we should now move forward. Sustaining the development of industry in Trinidad and Tobago: Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Green Manufacturing by Marc Sandy Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) possesses considerable proved reserves of crude oil and natural gas, which have traditionally allowed access to energy for industrial use at low costs, relative to the rest of the <strong>Caribbean</strong> region. However, the future growth and sustainability of T&T’s manufacturing sector will depend critically on its ability to move towards more sustainable methods of production. This paper will articulate positions that seek to clearly define the role, elements and parameters around which policy frameworks may be developed for renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste reduction and recycling in the Trinidad and Tobago manufacturing sector. It will also elaborate on the efforts being made, both in the public and private sector, to ‘Green’ our industries, for the benefit of the environment, the business sector and the wider national community. Though developed for the T&T local context, the backdrop to this paper is regional sustainable development. Conclusions will therefore be drawn as to how the country can then go further to participate in energy integration and deeper regional trade agreements, to enhance the sustainable growth of the <strong>Caribbean</strong>. It is instructive to note the environment within which the sector exists at present and, by extension, the emphasis as far as policy, legislation and implementation are concerned. Firstly, the legislative environment does not directly encourage or incentivize manufacturers to become more energy efficient. Secondly, there are inherent problems in the way in which policies are implemented locally, when one considers the infrastructural bottlenecks that have kept T&T’s cost of doing business high and stymied its competitiveness. Thirdly and in particular, the low cost of fossil fuel energy in T&T has led to a relatively languid approach to renewable energy development and industrial utilization, and the country lags behind many of its <strong>Caribbean</strong> counterparts. The overall objective of this paper is therefore to build a vision that sees Trinidad and Tobago in sync with the regional thrust towards energy efficiency, waste minimization and environmentally sustainable manufacturing. The realization of this vision, it is hoped, will placed the wider <strong>Caribbean</strong> on solid ground as we endeavour to surge beyond our development challenges. Our Planet : Using innovation to highlight the need to use and manage natural resources efficiently in the <strong>Caribbean</strong> by Pablo Rosenthal and Sarah Adams Our Planet will be an innovative educational/information centre for the <strong>Caribbean</strong> region which will raise public awareness on the efficient use, management and conservation of natural resources and protection of biodiversity. The centre will use high technologies in an interactive environment to engage visitors so that they "live" the impacts of a changing climate and poorly managed natural resources and understand the solutions which are presented to them. Beginning with a hologram of a leading environmental figure welcoming visitors to the centre and a hologram of the world illustrating the predicted changing climate, the global context will be presented followed by its impacts, specifically in the <strong>Caribbean</strong> region. Visitors will be led through an immersive environment to experience first hand the impacts of a changing climate (extreme weather events, rising waters, loss of biodiversity), will take part in interactive displays to measure their carbon footprint and discover solutions (renewable energies, energy efficiency, water and waste management, recycling, protection of biodiversity) which they can implement. Our Planet will be the first high technology centre of this kind in the world and will start receiving visitors in St Lucia from the beginning of 2011. Our Planet will also be working closely with the government of St Lucia and other local stakeholders to ensure that the centre is involved in the island’s educational programmes as the high technology 43 A B S T R A C T S FIFTH BIENNIAL CARIBBEAN ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM AND EXHIBITION