Trinidad and Tobago: ‘The Green Economy’

Making a difference in our economic space

2011-03-27 - Natural and man-made disasters have battered the normally well-organised, properly-ordered society of Japan over the past two weeks. Situated atop active and moving tectonic plates, Japan’s massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the tsunami which came in its wake claimed tens of thousands of lives which could be attributed to “acts of God”.

The consequent meltdown of Fukushima nuclear reactors, considered worse than Three Mile Island in the United States, but not as bad as Chernobyl in the Ukraine, has already begun to seep into the food chain, with radiation contaminating milk and spinach and radioactive iodine being found in tap water in Tokyo. The results could be catastrophic beyond Japan’s borders—if the wind blows west in the direction of Korea, China, Russia, threatening food supplies in those countries. The latter, however, though triggered by natural disaster, is the result of deliberate (though perhaps unconscious) economic energy policy decisions made by humans.

When considering a policy of economic development on the basis of diversification of the energy sector in the direction of environmental sustainability, there are many factors to be considered. The first is that the Trinidad and Tobago economy is hydrocarbon-based and that our petrochemical industries, fueled by oil and natural gas, currently exist in direct conflict with the objective of cleaner, greener and renewable energy and economic policy.

‘The Green Economy’ is the theme of the second episode of “Making a Difference in Our Economic Space.” Our guests, Dr Angela Cropper, Senior Adviser to the United Nations Environment Programme, Dr Roodal Moonilal, Minister of Housing and the Environment and environmental activist and Deputy Political Leader of the Congress of the People, Wendy Lee Yuen, help provide the international context to consider national environmental policies in national economic decision-making. {continued}