December 17th, 2009.

As she said that there are several such businesses interested in setting up operations at the TTIFC, Nunez-Tesheira made reference to an announcement made by its chairman Samuel Martin during a cocktail reception held by the Finance Minister for local and foreign entrepreneurs and business executives on the last day of the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Business Forum on November 26.

The cocktail reception was held on the ground floor at the TTIFC’s Tower D which is one of two towers both Nunez-Tesheira and Martin anticipate to be occupied by major international financial insistutions.

As questions continue to surround the lack of occupancy at the TTIFC by such institutions at this time and the intent to pursue it given the continuing international financial slowdown, Martin said that carbon trading has provided an ideal opportunity to have two major international financial institutions set up operations at the centre.

’Those of you were in the business conference would recall how much accent was placed on green and the new environment that the world is seeking to create.

The centre shall create a green gateway for the Caribbean and Latin America within the TTIFC to bring together investors, beneficiaries and technical know-how for clear energy and carbon reduction projects and programmes including carbon trading,’ Martin said.

He added that the TTIFC board has decided to set up a carbon credits and green commodity trading programme ’linked with other international carbon trading credit facilities which will enable various stakeholders to buy and sell carbon credits on a real time basis’.

’In this arena we have been assured of strong support from a partnership with a technology-rich company by the name of Green Ventures whose name you would have heard at the forum and a market financial institution in the name of Credit Suisse.

Both companies have indicated their commitment to the TTIFC and we look forward to their participation as we go forward,’ Martin said.

He added that the TTIFC was working ’hand in hand with the Government’ to ensure the passage of legislation ’required to ensure that we have an institution that investors would be willing to come to and operate in Trinidad because we have laws that set down the principles by which we operate’.

’They are fair, they are transparent. We have taxation regimes that people can live with and are happy with and in fact be willing to come in here and invest,’ Martin said.

Identifying the TTIFC as part of a ’well thought out economic diversification strategy’ by the Manning administration, he noted that the nation’s oil and natural gas sectors as well as the resulting downstream industries atogether comprise about 50 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

As the CHOGM was dominated by the issue of climate change, Martin said, ’Of course, as we all know too well, hydrocarbons and the related activities and more particularly the hydrocarbons are finite assets and we have a rather short window of opportunity as a country during which we must wean our economy from a dependency on oil and gas towards a more sustainable base.’

He explained that this was why the Government decided to build upon the nation’s dynamic financial services sector to achieve this objective.

And while trading carbon for credits will only form part of the TTIFC’s operations, it is not without some challenges.

Under a United Nation (UN)-managed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), emission-reduction (or emission removal) projects in developing countries earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, which each equate to one tonne of CO2 that can be traded and sold, and used by industrialised countries to a meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol agreement.

CO2 pricing, however, has been a source of contention for some countries.

During the CHOGM Business Forum BP group chief executive Anthony Hayward, spoke of the carbon pricing issue as he responded to a question from the Business Express during an energy sector session as to whether the establishment of an aluminium smelter, such as that now under construction in this country went against the whole concept of saving the environment.

At first Hayward said, ’I don’t think there is a conflict.

In my mind it is clear that the world continues to need aluminium.

We need to ensure that new factories take advantage of the new technology such that they are the most efficient we can see.’

Hayward then said that smelter issue must be addressed within the context of the carbon dioxide (CO2) pricing.

’As a price on CO2 occurs it will feed through the price of finished materials, be it a slab of steel or an inglet of aluminium and ultimately it will be passed on to the users of them and that is the whole basis on which the mechanisms to add capital flows to the place where it will make the biggest difference to CO2 reduction is based,’ he said.

Hayward and Energy Minister Conrad Enill were feature speakers during the session which was hosted by Petrotrin president Kenneth Allum who all spoke of the balancing act between the need to meet growing energy demands while seeking solutions to climate change which is dominating the CHOGM agenda of the CHOGM.

Hayward conceded the issue is a challenge for which there ’is no one-size-fits-all solution’.

He did so as he told those at the business forum including entrepreneurs from African countries and one of the world’s largest emerging markets, India, he does not ’believe there is a shortfall of fossil fuels’ as BP’s figures show that there are 40 years of oil and 60 years of natural gas left in the world at current rates of consumption.

’The real question is whether we have the necessary policies, capabilities, partnerships and supply chains to bring it to consumers,’ Hayward said.

He commented on the environmental benefits of natural gas in particular as a clean burning fossil fuel but the supplies brought into production in this country by companies such as BPTT, (a BP subsidiary) are to be used to feed the Alutrint aluminium smelter now being pursued by the Manning administration even as it hosted the CHOGM.

 Manning was among the Commonwealth leaders who signed the Port of Spain Consensus on climate change which reflects the body’s unified position on the issue as many of them announced their attention to attend this week’s talks in Copenhagen.


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