In a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), Trinidad and Tobago wants to embark on a carbon-capture-and-storage project but is looking for investors to get onboard.
Charles Percy, president of the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce, was speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum’s Energy efficiency session, aboard the cruise ship Serenade of the Seas yesterday.
’All that CO2 that is being produced at plants (in Trinidad and Tobago), there must be a way of capturing that and then transporting that and injecting it into empty reservoirs underground,’ Percy said.
’And because of our oil-and-gas nature, we’ve been at the fore for over 100 years, there are a lot of depleted reservoirs that are available that can store and capture carbon underground.’
CO2 is the chief fuel of the greenhouse gas effect that scientists worldwide say is responsible for accelerated climate change.
Trinidad and Tobago has gained notoriety as one of the top ten producers of CO2 per capita in the world. However, this country only contributes about .1 per cent of the global figure, which comes mainly out of the country’s petrochemical sector.
According to the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) Boodlal and Furlonge Report, the petrochemical sector accounts for 56 per cent of CO2 emissions while power generation accounts for 28 per cent; transport, 11 per cent; manufacturing, four per cent; and residential, one per cent.
While Trinidad and Tobago may be seen as a high emitter of CO2 per capita, the country is a small island developing state which, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is one of the two most vulnerable groups to climate change. The other is people living in the polar areas.
When the UN climate change conference takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month, Trinidad and Tobago will advocate that carbon capture should be included in the clean development mechanism (CDM), according to Percy.
He added: ’The clean development mechanism allows developed countries to offset their commitments by reducing GHG emissions by investing in developing countries. So our country is pushing very strongly for carbon capture and to modify the CDM mechanism to allow more developing countries to invest in Trinidad and Tobago.’
