Countries across the globe have committed to create a new international climate agreement by the conclusion of the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, November 30 - December 11, 2015.
In preparation, countries have publicly agreed to outline what post-2020 climate actions they intend to take under a new international agreement known as their Intended Nationally Determined Determined Contributions (INDCs). The INDCs will largely determine whether the world achieves an ambitious 2015 agreement and is put on a path towards a low carbon, climate resilient future.
Trinidad and Tobago's INDC was submitted to the UNFCCC in August 2015, the first Caribbean country and second Small Island Developing State (SIDS) do so. It is based on the Caribbean Reduction Strategy which was developed for the major carbon emitting sectors of our economy, i.e. the power generation, transportation and industrial sectors. This process lasted 3 years and was finalised in 2014.
The INDC for Trinidad and Tobago present buisness as usual (BAU) scenarios for the 3 emitting sectors up to the year 2030. It identifies mitigation options and includes policy instruments, knowledge and awareness approaches to elicit behavioural changes and direct technology intervention options such as clean technology, fuel switching and renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.
Trinidad and Tobago's aim is to achieve a reduction of overall emissions from the 3 sectors by 15% by 2030 from BAU equating to 103,000,000 CO2e. The estimated cost of meeting this objective is 2 million USD and is expected to be met partly through domestic funding and conditionally on international financing including through the Green Climate Fund.
