Minister Young Participates in a Virtual Panel Discussion for a Side Event of Cop26 - "Commonwealth Collaboration to Accelerate Methane Reductions in the Petroleum Sector"

The Minister of Energy and Energy Industries and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, the Honourable Stuart R. Young M.P., participated in a virtual panel discussion for a side event of COP26- titled, Commonwealth Collaboration to Accelerate Methane Reductions in the Petroleum Sector.

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is being hosted by the UK in Glasgow from 31st October – 12th November 2021, and seeks to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The COP26 Commonwealth Pavilion is a critical dialogue and steppingstone for Commonwealth countries and partners to enable acceleration of national methane emissions reduction; explore areas where greater support and cooperation is needed and identify opportunities for collaboration.

In his contribution, Minister Young noted that as a small island, Trinidad and Tobago is looking towards the larger developed countries to lead the charge towards methane reduction, as their economies and energy sectors are the major contributors to the level of emissions. Minister Young said that Trinidad and Tobago being a hydrocarbon based economy was conscious of finding the right balance of measures to contribute to emission reduction from waste and transportation, use of renewables and continuing to maintain a hydrocarbon sector whilst cleaning up and reducing harmful emissions from this sector.

The Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries of Trinidad and Tobago will be working with the energy sector to reduce emissions and aims to reduce emission targets before the expected timelines.

Minister Young spoke about the work being done by the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago in using state of the art technology to identify methane emissions and then planing to either reduce or capture such emissions. He assured the audience that Trinidad and Tobago is committed to doing its part to combat global warming.

In a response to a question from the virtual audience regarding the lack of action worldwide towards methane reduction despite the relative ease to do so, Minister Young spoke about the lack of global awareness generally on the topic, but assured hat in Trinidad and Tobago, there is the political determination behind the issue which the country is working assiduously to understand how to effectively reduce methane emissions as well as capture, utilize and monetize it.

Minister Young told the panel and the audience that Trinidad and Tobago intends to do all it can to move from discussion to implementation in the not too distant future.