Contact_Vol19No1_March2019_WEB full and final

Blueprint for a Bold New Economy
These obstacles increase the financial risks associated with
RE and EE investments.
electricity” (Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago 2013),
which is hostile to EE and must change.
Barriers
Fig. 4: Barriers to renewable energy and
energy efficiency in Trinidad and Tobago
Technical
Economic
Political
Social
Natural conditions
Technological constraints
Infrastructure
Price/cost
Financial aspects
Market failure/distortion
Policy
Institutional capacity
Regulatory
Consumer behaviour/awareness
Interaction networks
Cultural
Tackling the issues
These issues can be addressed through several measures:
policy, legislation and regulation; standards; and
mandated fiscal incentives and financing institutional
capacity strengthening.
The 1994 United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol
were developed to enable member countries to reduce
their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and in turn decrease
atmospheric GHG concentrations. Trinidad and Tobago is
a ratified signatory under both of these mechanisms as
a non-Annex 1 country: it is not obligated to reduce its
emissions, but can do so on a voluntary basis.
A number of fiscal incentives (see sidebar) were
introduced in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 national budgets,
in an effort to promote alternative energy use and EE.
A number of these incentives required revisions to the
Customs Act, the Income Tax Act and the VAT Act (Energy
Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago 2011).
Psychological/moral
Subsidised fuel and electricity prices
Trinidad and Tobago’s low electricity cost of US$0.06/kWh
in some cases is at least ten times cheaper than other
Caribbean and Latin American countries (Figure 5). This
acts as an enormous disincentive to the development and
utilisation of RE and EE mechanisms locally, making it
uneconomical for RE and EE to penetrate the local energy
market.
Avg. domestic electricity tariff ($US/kWh)
0.7
0.4
Trinidad
Belize
St Lucia
Jamaica
0
Fig. 5: Comparison of electricity tariffs
among various Caribbean islands
Barbados
The Bahamas
St Vincent
Anguilla
Grenada
Curacao
Dominica
Cayman Islands
Antigua
Bermuda
Source: Shirley et al. 2013
Culture, education, and lack of awareness
Popular attitudes towards energy, and its resultant
wasteful use, have stemmed from its low cost. This, along
with lack of education, supports a culture of “wastage
and inefficient use of the natural gas that generates our
RE policy
In 2011, a draft RE policy was formulated, which
recommended the implementation of various initiatives
and fiscal incentives to promote the use of RE and increase
EE locally. The framework also set a target of producing
5% or 60MW of the country’s peak electricity supply from
RE sources.
Climate change policy
A draft climate change policy document was prepared
and discussed at public consultations before finalisation.
This covered GHG emission reduction via RE use
and EE measures.
Carbon emission reduction framework
The Ministry of Planning and Development, UNDP and
Factor CO 2
consultants will embark on the formulation of
a draft policy to address CO 2
emissions from our power
generation, industrial and transportation sectors.
The consultants will conduct policy reviews, design
business-as-usual (BAU) emission trajectories, recognise
low CO 2
opportunities, and devise low CO 2
scenarios for
possible implementation.
EE policy
The National Energy Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago
has been mandated by the government to produce a draft
EE policy targeting industrial plants within the Point Lisas
Industrial Estate.
The UWI-Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business
offers an MBA in sustainable energy management, the
only one of its kind in the Caribbean. It allows students
to contribute to the successful “planning, execution and
monitoring” of energy projects and organisations. It
establishes a framework for the economic diversification
38 MARCH 2019 CHAMBER.ORG.TT