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Not everyone is on the same page – neither the ‘business as usual’; ‘time for change’ nor the ‘and –not or’ page. Are the divisions across industry a reflection of the global community or is the global community a reflection of industry? Which is the cause, which is the effect; what is a need versus what is a want – and does it matter? The truth is, our planet is in trouble.
In May 2022, the Energy Chamber officially launched a six-point plan to secure new natural gas supplies and maximize exports from Trinidad & Tobago.
The global pandemic had a profound impact on expectations about where people work. With lockdowns, companies were forced overnight to implement the remote work practices that had often been discussed in the past but rarely executed. For many employees this was a positive experience and lots of people have been keen to maintain remote working practices even as the pandemic has retreated.
I really enjoyed my visit to Guyana this week to attend the Guyana Basin Summit. It was great to catch-up with old friends and colleagues and to make many new contacts as well. This was my first visit since the pandemic and it’s really encouraging to see the progress that has been made in the past few years, with lots of stories of productive new business relationships between Trinidadian and Guyanese companies, and with many Surinamese and Jamaican businesses also in the mix.
The strategy of using a household’s T&TEC electricity bill as a way of targeting support to the neediest households, is an interesting and innovative policy development. This is something that the Energy Chamber recommended to the Roadmap to Recovery policy development process in 2020, in the midst of the first wave of the COVID pandemic. There is a strong correlation between household income and electricity use. This means that it makes good sense to use electricity bills as a method to overcome the vexing issue of means testing and to avoid the moral hazard often associated with cash transfer or food card programmes, where better off households with the right political or social contacts access the support, rather than the households most in need.
At most major Energy Chamber conferences, I find that there is one simple phrase that really sticks with me and I end up thinking about a lot in the days and weeks after the event. At the 2021 Energy Efficiency and Renewables Conference it was a simple statement from Prof. Avinash Persaud, advisor to the Prime Minister of Barbados, who reminded us all that “just because something is obvious, does not mean it will happen”.
Political winds have shifted.
Populists are on defence. Liberals everywhere overwhelmingly see climate change as a central issue. The US will rejoin the Paris climate accord and climate plans will stress the need for the complete and rapid decarbonisation of the global economy. It will take trillions of dollars in spending to get it done and Trinidad and Tobago is super-positioned to take advantage of the spend. Carbon pricing, no longer viewed as politically toxic, is primed for the aggressive and costly climate plans under consideration. Welldesigned carbon pricing systems will save money rather than cost taxpayers.
There are many estimates of the number of Venezuelans in Trinidad and Tobago. The government of TT registered some 16,523 Venezuelan by June 2019 in an attempt to start to formalize the process by which these immigrants participate in our labour market. In 2020 though, R4V put the number of Venezuelans in T&T at 33,400.
The need for addressing the climate crisis through the transition to decarbonised economies is gaining precedence throughout the world. Several countries have set ‘carbon neutral’, ‘net zero’, or ‘net negative’ targets and the number of private enterprises doing the same is also on the rise. The timeline and scope (types of gases) covered varies by country; for example Sweden has committed to greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045, while China is focusing on becoming primarily carbon dioxide neutral by 2060. The consensus by scientists, however, is that in order to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 2˚C or lower, the global community needs to increase climate ambition reach net zero emissions by no later than 2050. Carbon neutral or net zero implies that any emission of the type(s) of greenhouse gas covered by the policy is matched or netted off by an appropriate mix of direct emissions reductions, emissions avoidance, and emissions removal and sequestration.
As a coastal country experiencing vulnerability from climate change with environmental degradation due to an increase in average temperatures, a reduction in precipitation, a rise in sea level, water scarcity and desertification, Tunisia is no stranger to the threat that climate change can, and already poses to its people and economy. Indeed, the national constitution, passed in 2014, recognizes the threat of climate change, promising its citizens the right to a healthy and balanced environment.
Local content has emerged as a key priority for many resource-rich developing countries, including Trinidad and Tobago. Its role in deepening and widening linkages and sustainably boosting value between the energy sector and other productive sectors of the Trinidad and Tobago economy has been a topic of continuing discussion.
When I moved to Trinidad and Tobago two years ago, I needed to buy a car. I’ve always lived in different countries across Europe and never had to drive, but in Trinidad, for first time in my life, I had to reconsider. Even though I’ve had a valid drivers’ licence since I was 18 years old, I have never had to use it as I could take a bike, walk or travel by public transportation. Now I find myself having to reconsider how I move around and the dramatic impact this change would have on my personal life.
Innovation can be defined as the invention or changing of some idea, product or method. However, Peter Senge asserts that it is only when invention can be replicated reliably on a meaningful scale and at a practical cost can it be considered an innovation. As such, innovation flows from invention where utility, feasibility, entrepreneurship and leadership converge. At a national level, innovation involves the entire ecosystem with drivers being culture, institutions and government policy. These drivers impact each other systemically at the industry, business and individual levels which determine national competitiveness. This article examines these drivers locally in the context of the National Development Strategy (NDS) Vision 2030, along with further suggestions for improving innovation.
The new coronavirus and climate change have many similarities. Both are global and highlight the dangers of ignoring experts and scientific data. They do not respect national borders and no one is immune from their impacts. Only joint actions will effectively control the pandemic or mitigate the scale of climate change.
The singular phenomenon of COVID-19 has resulted in massive shocks to economic and social systems over the last few months. It was with this knowledge in mind that the European Union Delegation in collaboration with Cropper Foundation, IAMovement and United Nations organised a panel discussion that focused on a critical question: how do we ‘Build Back Better’ post COVID-19? As countries around the world take stock of the economic damage caused by the pandemic and make plans to return to ‘normal’, there have been concerted calls to reject a ‘business as usual’ paradigm.
A United Nations report describes governance as the exercise of political and administrative authority at all levels to manage a country’s affairs. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. In keeping with the description, this article proffers that civil society (CS) can play a greater role in developing a country’s policies, transformation strategies and reporting and monitoring mechanisms for how resources are allocated.
At the time of writing, Trinidad and Tobago is in the midst of a sharp spike in our coronavirus cases and like a lot of other people in the country, I am back to working from home. Since the original lockdown in March 2020, I have only actually been into my office in Point Lisas a handful of times. Our offices remain open mainly to provide the essential training and certification services that we need to deliver to the industry, but like many of our members, our policy remains that whoever can work from home, should work from home.
When I discuss diversification with many people in Trinidad, “cheap natural gas” is often mentioned as a key strength that we should leverage to attract new export-oriented industries. The Trinidad and Tobago investment promotion agency, InvesTT, lists the very low cost of electricity as one of the central reasons why international investors should consider Trinidad and Tobago as an investment destination.
The 2019 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitive Index (GCI) ranking for Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) dropped by one (1) place at 79/141 countries when compared to 2018. This places T&T in the bottom 50th percentile. One of the reasons for low competitiveness lies in the low innovation capacity and dynamism of our businesses. T&T’s ranking of 87 for Business Dynamism (BD) is relatively low for a high income (GNI per capita) country (i.e. well above the trend line of income vs GCI rank). From the chart below one can see countries with similar income to T&T e.g. Panama and Latvia with higher BD rankings than T&T. More interestingly are lower income countries that have much better BD rankings e.g. Jamaica (33rd) and Rwanda (46th, whose Government launched an innovation fund in 2018). In this context, the narrative of Business Transformation (BT) arises i.e. the evolution or revolution of the business model.
The world is experiencing a decoupling of energy production and economic growth. Even if demand for fossil fuels persists, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will transform the oil and gas (O&G) value chain. Many economies are still tightly coupled with O&G complicating predictions of what the future workforce may look like.
