Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday revealed that this country was considering using the ’controversial’ technology of capturing and storing of carbon emissions, as a means of doing its part to reduce global warming.

The release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is a major contributor to climate change.

Asked whether Trinidad and Tobago would be accessing or supplying financial aid (from the fund to be established) for small vulnerable nations to deal with climatic change, Manning said Trinidad and Tobago fell in the category of small and vulnerable developing countries.

’True we aspire to developed country status by 2020, but we are not there yet and we are still considered developing. But Trinidad and Tobago is an industrialised country and therefore you would find that our carbon footprint is a little larger than the footprint of countries which are considered to be developing,’ Manning said during a press conference marking the end of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain.

’In those circumstances we will…pursue a policy of minimising our carbon emissions and the emissions of other greenhouse gases and we will seek to retrofit (modernise the technology of) existing plants in collaboration with companies that operate here in the industry.’

He said Government would seek to achieve this in the shortest possible time.

’One of the mechanisms we are contemplating to reduce our carbon footprint is the question of carbon capture and sequestration, which is something that is very contentious because there are countries that believe that if you place carbon oxides in formations that once contained oil and gas, you run the risk of leakages from these horizons,’ Manning said.

’While that is quite possible, we do not see it as the problem that some others see it, and therefore we are contemplating it. In fact, in Trinidad and Tobago, we have been doing some of that for some time, because carbon dioxide is the commodity that we use in the secondary recovery of oil.’

He added that some of the plants used to manufacture ammonia have carbon dioxide as a by-product. He said on the other hand, the methanol plants use carbon dioxide to increase its outproduct, ’so it is a kind of trade off situation; a net situation in which we have an excess of carbon dioxide produced over carbon dioxide consumed and it is in those circumstances we are considering carbon sequestration’.

The Prime Minister said the Government did not see it as a prohibitively expensive proposition. He said climate change was not an academic issue.

’We just have to do what we have to do to keep the level of concentration of greenhouse gases in the air as low as possible,’ he said.

Asked what will make the Climatic Change Fund a reality allowing developed countries to access it, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, also at the conference, said his finance people told him that his country’s contribution would be $10 to $15 million to the $10 billion fund for climate change. He said one of the key issues was forming a global alliance in which technology would be given to developed countries to assist them to develop in an environmentally friendly way. -Ria Taitt (Trinidad Express)

Aretha Welch awelch@trinidadexpress.com

Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, has remained mum on the fact that Edward Natapei, Prime Minister of the small Pacific island-state of Vanuatu, lost his job while he was attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend.

When the question on whether or not the Commonwealth would be taking a position to help Natapei, who missed a sitting of Parliament in his country on Friday while travelling to Trinidad to attend the meeting, Sharma simply asked whether or not that was actually a question.

Neither he, nor any of his counterparts attempted to treat with the controversial topic during the final press conference of the CHOGM yesterday evening at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain.

According to the standing orders of Vanuatu’s parliament, Natapei forfeited his seat in Parliament on Friday when he missed his third consecutive parliamentary sitting without notifying the Speaker of the House back in his country.

Natapei missed an extraordinary sitting of Parliament, where they were set to debate his country’s national budget. As such, while he was representing his country at CHOGM, the Speaker of the House, Maxime Carlot Korman, declared Natapei’s seat vacant and told the other Parliamentarians they would have to elect a new Prime Minister by next week.

Commentators are now questioning whether Vanuatu’s signing off on a Climate Change consensus and fund, intended to help small states like Vanuatu cope with global warming issues, at the Port of Spain meeting, has any standing, given Natapei’s questionable status as head of his country.

Renuka Singh

MEMBERS of the public who may have been thinking about catching a last glimpse of the departing Heads of State who attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting were disappointed yesterday, as their departures lacked the pomp and ceremony associated with their arrivals at Piarco International Airport.

Also, the major players of the CHOGM, including titular head Queen Elizabeth II, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and last-minute CHOGM addition, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, all left late Saturday night.

Minister of Public Administration, Kennedy Swaratsingh, was on hand to oversee the departure of Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson yesterday, and described all the departures as a ’low-key affair’.

Swaratsingh explained that the several of the local Ministers were assigned to various dignitaries and accompanied them to the airport instead of waiting at the airport for them.

Security details, present for the entire CHOGM weekend, were reduced to a few pairings of local and Caricom officers occupying tents along the route to the airport.

Although security measures and roadblocks continued in the capital until late yesterday afternoon, there were no roadblocks or security checks along the roads near Piarco or the old southern airport terminal yesterday.

Aretha Welch awelch@trinidadexpress.com

Fixing the world’s broken economy is still a major issue for the several Heads of Government who attended this weekend’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Prime Minister Patrick Manning gave the assurance at a press conference at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain, at the conclusion of the CHOGM.

Manning, who was also chair of the CHOGM, said although there was much focus on the upcoming Copenhagen Summit and the issue of climate change, the issue of the world’s faltering economy and the World Trade Organisation’s Ministerial conference, which kicks off today in Geneva, Switzerland, had not been put on the back burner by global leaders.

When asked whether the issues of protectionism and other detrimental trade practices, which have been re-emerging globally in light of the recent economic crisis, were given any specific attention at the CHOGM, Manning said despite all the focus placed on climate change at CHOGM, ’everyone wants a successful WTO (meeting), don’t think that has changed’.

He said both climate change and the global economic crisis were important issues.

This year’s WTO meeting comes at the tail end of a global economic downturn which has seen a surge in the individual pressures which each country has to face to keep their citizens employed and manufacturers alive.

However, at the same press conference, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key said while protectionist measures in developed countries have increased, their existence should not be exaggerated or ’taken out of perspective’.

He also said that the issue of agriculture and food security should be high on the agenda at the WTO, and some headway in relation to completing the now stalled DOHA round of global trade negotiations should be sought after.

This country’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mariano Browne, left here late Friday night for Switzerland to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the international trade round table.

Manning said while Caricom’s (Caribbean Community) position on international trade is more or less in sync, Browne is there on our behalf as other Caricom states have their ministers in Geneva to represent their interests. (Trinidad Express)

Aretha Welch awelch@trinidadexpress.com

The Commonwealth Heads of Government, who were up to yesterday gathered in Port of Spain, are calling on developed countries around the world to stay true to their word and follow through on promises they have made to poorer, more indebted countries (like those in the Caribbean).

This call came as part of the official communique which the Commonwealth Secretariat released following yesterday’s closure of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain.

The document asked that more prosperous countries honour various bilateral agreements they have with developing countries where the writing off bad debts, or money owed to them, was agreed on. They also asked that the countries act on delivering financial aid to the less financially developed states.

’The Declaration of Port of Spain: Partnering for a More Equitable and Sustainable Future’, said ’…We also call on donor countries to honour their bilateral commitments with respect to the promised aid levels and cancellation of debt.’

In the agreement, the Commonwealth country heads who attended CHOGM also said, ’We call on the international financial institutions to provide new and enhanced funding windows for concessionary financing for middle-income countries with serious debt burdens.’

By way of this call, the leaders added weight to the concerns raised by many international economists, about the present ineffectiveness of policies created by certain financial bodies, like the IMF and World Bank, in treating with the economies of vulnerable states.

The leaders acknowledged that many small nations and middle income nations (such as those in the Caribbean), are encumbered by financial debt, which absorbs much of their governments’ revenue and subtracts from the amount of money which can be put into social development programmes to help the average citizens in these countries.

The leaders reiterated a commitment espoused by many world leaders before them, and said they were collaborating ’to find ways to provide immediate help to the poorest and most vulnerable’ citizens in developing countries. (Trinidad Express)

Ria Taitt Political Editor

‘MEETING A SUCCESS’: Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, left, South Africa President Jacob Zuma, centre, and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key during a media conference after the final session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain yesterday. Australia will host the next meeting in 2011. -Photo: CURTIS CHASE

Trinidad and Tobago and Prime Minister Patrick Manning received lavish praise yesterday.

This was the unanimous view expressed by attendees at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Port of Spain, as the curtain came down on the event at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain.

Climate change dominated the talks, but as Commonwealth leaders bade farewell, the spotlight was favourably placed on the people and Government of Trinidad and Tobago and there was an expression of satisfaction from big and small countries alike.

The conference was deemed to be an unqualified success because: a) the Commonwealth welcomed a new member to its family-Rwanda; b) accord was reached on climate change, which, to quote Manning, would have ’more than a small influence’ on the summit in Copenhagen; c) there was a reaffirmation of the principles and values of the Commonwealth and; d) for the first time the Commonwealth associated itself with non-Commonwealth personalities who came to Port of Spain for the event. These included French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said the conference gave the lie to the claims of the sceptics that the Commonwealth as an institution was no longer relevant.

’This CHOGM has truly answered that…I go home with a feeling that the Commonwealth can meet the global challenges…and that there is so much camaraderie…making this summit hugely successful,’ he said.

Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd agreed, saying that the level of camaraderie, the give and take in the Commonwealth, was not easily replicated in other international organisations. But he noted, ’The challenge is to apply that great spirit, goodwill and preparedness to speak with one single voice and the spirit of collaboration…to the great challenges of global politics, global security…global economic management and financial reform, trade as well as development and the great and overwhelming challenge of climate trade.’

Said Rudd: ’The task is to take this credible institution…and apply it to the global agenda of the day.’

He stressed that that was successfully done with the PoS Climate Change Consensus document.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key noted that the meeting ’was extremely well run, so I want to congratulate you, (Manning)’, though he noted the Commonwealth faced new challenges in relation to countries like Fiji and Zimbabwe.

South African President Jacob Zuma hailed the manner in which the Commonwealth dealt with climate change issues, pointing to the presence of non-Commonwealth leaders at the meeting. Noting that he had been asking what impact the Commonwealth was making (before this meeting held), he said: ’I am very happy… Small, middle and big were able to hammer out views…with a communique that captured our feelings. This CHOGM has responded to issues very correctly. We go home very happy indeed.’

Papua New Guinea President, Sir Michael Thomas Somare, said the meeting was good for island states of the Caribbean, West and East Africa and the Pacific and South East Asia.

’There are nations in the world who may not be serious about what is happening to us. In Papua New Guinea, …islands are coming under the water … This conference made it possible for our voice to be heard. So I am going with a very happy mind… PoS will go down in history,’ he said, adding that this was one of the best CHOGMs he had attended.

Manning got kudos from all for his chairmanship of the meeting.

Rudd spoke of the ’quality’ of this chairmanship, while Samoa Prime Minister. Tullaepa Lupesaolal Sallele, thanked him for his ’inspired’ choice of the group of wise men to hammer out a draft text on the climate change issue, for his ’gentle persuasion and appeals to common sense’ and ’when all else failed’, for his ’laying down the law’. He also praised the cultural show at the opening, saying that the ingenious use of the discarded steel drum was a good example of recycling, as well as a good way to help young people develop an appreciation for group involvement.

Manning himself thanked all for their kind sentiments and he expressed his appreciation to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

This is Trinidad and Tobago’s second international conference this year. Though its declaration was signed only by Manning, the chairman, the Fifth Summit of the Americas was hailed by participants for ushering in a new spirit of cooperation among the states of the Americas, particularly the US and Latin America. The Commonwealth meeting was equally hailed for the consensus on climate change. (Trinidad Express)