Govt combating pollutants

This grant, provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is for a regional project entitled, “Development and Implementation of a Sustainable Mechanism for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the Caribbean.” TT is one of eight selected Caribbean countries which include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Suriname, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia.

Planning Minister Camille Robinson- Regis said participation in this regional project will enable TT to develop mechanisms for the environmentally sound management of persistent organic pollutants, thereby reducing and eliminating the threat they currently pose to the lives of citizens. TT will benefit from this project via: the enabling mechanisms for the effective implementation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs; the assessment of contaminated sites to determine the level of contaminants present and impact monitoring and evaluation of the activities conducted to manage those sites.

TT acceded to the Stockholm Convention on POPs on December 15, 2002.

This country will also benefit through the establishment and implementation of direct interventions nationally, some of which include the remediation of the Guanapo Landfill site, which has been identified as a contaminated site in need or urgent remediation. This is a collaborative project with the ministry involving the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Solid Waste Management Company Ltd.

(SWMCOL) and the Public Utilities Ministry through the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA).

As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), TT is committed to reducing its national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), submitted to the United Nations as its commitment under the Paris Agreement, as well as aimed at developing sustainable capacity as part of ongoing climate change related initiatives.

Governmental representatives from TT also participated as an observer in the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the UN Framework on Climate Change held from November 7 to 18 in Marrakech, Morocco.