The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) is con­tin­u­ing to build its ca­pac­i­ty as the Ex­e­cut­ing Agency for trans­paren­cy ac­tiv­i­ties in cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion and adap­ta­tion ac­tiv­i­ties for Trinidad and To­ba­go, with sup­port from the Unit­ed King­dom.

Ac­cord­ing to a news re­lease from the EMA, the British High Com­mis­sion has been dri­ving in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion for sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment be­tween T&T and the UK. 

The EMA re­ports that in re­cent meet­ings, High Com­mis­sion­er H.E. Har­ri­et Cross dis­cussed cli­mate change, waste man­age­ment, green trans­porta­tion and ap­proach­es to de­vel­op­ing green jobs. 

The Au­thor­i­ty points out the British High Com­mis­sion has sup­port­ed the ini­tial op­er­a­tional­iza­tion of T&T’s Ca­pac­i­ty Build­ing Ini­tia­tive for Trans­paren­cy (CBIT) and the Mon­i­tor­ing, Re­port­ing and Ver­i­fi­ca­tion (MRV) Sys­tem via fund­ing for train­ing, re­sources and li­cens­es. 

“This ca­pac­i­ty build­ing would as­sist Trinidad and To­ba­go in its re­port­ing un­der the Paris Agree­ment on GHG emis­sions and on the progress in the im­ple­men­ta­tion and achieve­ment of the mit­i­ga­tion con­tri­bu­tions in the Na­tion­al­ly De­ter­mined Con­tri­bu­tion,” the EMA ex­plains.

British High Commissioner H.E. Harriet Cross views a live demonstration of the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) System. (Image courtesy EMA)

This coun­try’s cli­mate change ini­tia­tives are be­ing fund­ed un­der the Glob­al En­vi­ron­ment Fa­cil­i­ty (GEF), which un­der­writes its cre­ation of the CBIT and MRV sys­tems.

The EMA is the host and op­er­a­tor of the Knowl­edge Man­age­ment Sys­tem, which is the da­ta repos­i­to­ry and, there­fore, the back­bone of the Na­tion­al Cli­mate Change Mit­i­ga­tion Mon­i­tor­ing, Re­port­ing and Ver­i­fi­ca­tion Sys­tem. 

“Through this Sys­tem, Trinidad and To­ba­go aims to in­sti­tu­tion­al­ize and stream­line the in­ven­to­ry­ing of green­house gas emis­sions, track the im­ple­men­ta­tion of mit­i­ga­tion mea­sures, in­clud­ing those re­lat­ed to the Na­tion­al­ly De­ter­mined Con­tri­bu­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go and mon­i­tor the use of re­sources in­clu­sive of sup­port re­ceived,” the EMA says.

The Au­thor­i­ty notes it is re­spon­si­ble for co­or­di­nat­ing the ex­e­cu­tion of this Project, from the pro­cure­ment process­es to the im­ple­men­ta­tion, de­vel­op­ment, and over­sight of the main­te­nance of the sys­tem to sus­tain trans­paren­cy.