What have COPs actually done for T&T?

The Unit­ed Na­tions Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence is nev­er short of Trin­bag­o­ni­ans. They are in ne­go­ti­at­ing rooms, tech­ni­cal ar­eas of both ex­per­tise and ad­vis­ers, civ­il so­ci­ety mem­bers talk­ing on pan­els, en­vi­ron­men­tal ad­vo­cates protest­ing, sci­en­tists, aca­d­e­mics, and re­searchers. Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ties to COP date back to the gen­e­sis of the Unit­ed Na­tions Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change (UN­FC­CC). When the UN­FC­CC was adopt­ed in 1992, T&T signed on at the Rio Earth Sum­mit. Two years lat­er, this coun­try rat­i­fied the Con­ven­tion and be­came a for­mal par­ty. We sub­se­quent­ly at­tend­ed the first COP in 1995, play­ing an ac­tive role in the dis­cus­sions and sub­mit­ting a pro­pos­al for stronger emis­sions re­duc­tion.

Yet, for a coun­try that has pro­duced some of the finest ne­go­tia­tors and aca­d­e­mics, there is scep­ti­cism con­nect­ed to the par­tic­i­pa­tion and ben­e­fits of T&T be­ing at COP. One need not look fur­ther than so­cial me­dia. I sought to in­ter­ro­gate that thought this past week in An­talya, Türkiye, where COP31 is be­ing held.

Kis­han Ku­mars­ingh, T&T’s long­stand­ing ne­go­tia­tor for three decades who re­signed this year, told the Sun­day Guardian this coun­try has ex­er­cised “con­sid­er­able in­flu­ence” on the in­ter­na­tion­al cli­mate stage. He added, “The clear­est ex­am­ple of what COP has done for T&T is the US$10 mil­lion Adap­ta­tion Fund grant for the South Oropouche Riv­er Basin. The project sup­ports flood re­silience, wa­ter in­fra­struc­ture, wet­land re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and vul­ner­a­ble farm­ers and fish­ers. This is grant fi­nanc­ing for a na­tion­al pri­or­i­ty.”