00:00The Pathways to Net Zero for the Wastewater Sector and the Pathways to Net Zero for the Agriculture, Forestry and
00:07Other Land Use or AFLU Sector Reports are now in the hands of the government.
00:12British High Commissioner to TNT John Dean says more resilient communities and economies, food security and the creation of opportunities
00:20for the future generation are reliant on converting ambition into action.
00:25These issues are compounded by climate change and so the commission pulled out the funds to devise the two action
00:32plans.
00:33Dean says the country is poised to act from a position of advantage.
00:38They start from a position of opportunity. As they outline, Trinidad and Tobago already has significant natural assets in its
00:46forests, wetlands and ecosystems which remove more carbon from the atmosphere than the sector emits.
00:53The reports done in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Development and the Environmental Management Authority looked at the
01:02differences between Trinidad and Tobago and tailored action plans were developed.
01:07The extensive research done by Consulting Engineers and Associates Limited spanned six months.
01:14It involved legislative and institutional assessments, international benchmarking, scenario modeling and stakeholder engagement across diverse sectors, private, public, academia, indigenous
01:26interest groups, national and multinational agencies to name a few.
01:31In Trinidad, data collection gaps and operating in silos were major problems in treating with waste and affolue, which is
01:39linked to carbon sinks and greenhouse gas emissions.
01:42The issue is execution as an integrated system. Tobago's smaller scale makes speedy, visible action possible, but it also requires
01:53capacity, staffing, training and institutional support.
01:57The reports focus on turning methane into a financial resource through initiatives like recycling, separation, materials recovery and composting, and
02:07for affolue, protecting and verifying carbon sinks and seeking climate financing.
02:13The reports are broken up into three horizons spanning the 2050 net zero timeline.
02:19In Horizon 1, the aim is to gather the data to influence the transformation period.
02:24Horizon 2, 2031 to 2040, that's when we expect to have the most gains.
02:32By then, we should have a pipeline of projects that are deemed bankable, that is, they are ready for FID
02:41or financial investment decisions, and are well underway.
02:46According to Roper, many of the projects at present do not meet the standards that in international funding stymieing execution.
02:53He is pushing for the enabling of Horizon 1.
02:57And we would propose that within the next three to six months, we all get together to confirm this mission
03:05board approach, ask the questions, ensure that it is clear, absolutely clear, and understand the reporting relationships and the data
03:14sharing.
03:15Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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