With only 2,000 square miles, a population of 1.3 million and an abundance of heavy industry mainly located at Pt Lisas, T&T has a reputation of being one of the largest polluters per capita in the world.
With only 2,000 square miles, a population of 1.3 million and an abundance of heavy industry mainly located at Pt Lisas, T&T has a reputation of being one of the largest polluters per capita in the world.More than that, it is also one of the least efficient uses of electricity and fuel, according to Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine.The Energy Minister recently told reporters; "According to the World Indicators Report and the annual report of the World Bank, T&T is one of the most energy inefficient countries in the world and we have to change that. That relates quite a lot to how we use electricity, it relates to our consumption of fuel,"
It is one of the reasons the Ministry of Energy views its ongoing Caricom Energy Week as important. According to the ministry, there is an urgent need to educate the public on the need to conserve energy, which is one of the plan behind the Caricom Energy Week. According to Randy Maurice, leader of the ministry's renewable energy team, the ministry has been focusing on energy efficiency, alternative energy and renewable energy.Maurice said part of the challenge has been in getting people to realise there is a need to use energy more efficiently.
"The decision to host the Energy Week came out of a special meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and was designed to bring people of the Caribbean to focus on sustainable energy."We recognise that sustainable energy encompasses for T&T many things, including what might be considered the lowest hanging fruit, that of energy efficiency, but also alternative energy, like CNG-compressed natural gas-and, of course, renewables."
The ministry estimates that for the first two days, its booth in Port-of-Spain welcomed more than 250 people who were all given literature on sustainable energy and simple ways to reduce their energy use.Yesterday, the programme was expected to be launched in San Fernando. The ministry will also have a presence in Tobago, where there is significant interest in solar water heaters.'We see this are really the start of our education campaign, as we try to let nationals be more conscious of the need to conserve our resources, even in terms of the fuel that they use, so that they can both conserve energy whilem at the same timem doing something good for the planet and future generations," Maurice told the Business Guardian on Tuesday.
In the 2012 budget, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran announced several measures designed to encourage investment in cleaner energy:
• a 50 per cent reduction in import duty on vehicles which are manufactured to use natural gas, and have an engine capacity smaller than 2300 cc
• a wear and tear allowance of 130 per cent of expenditure incurred on the acquisition of plant, machinery and equipment, excluding installation costs, for the purpose of providing a compressed natural gas kit and
• cylinder installation service or the acquisition and installation of a CNG kit