Energy transition is inevitable. The global push to move from the use of fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is not only a global movement but a necessity for life as we know it.
TT is among 197 signatories that devoted itself to reversing the effects of climate change through the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) initiative, first established 27 years ago. However, balancing the overall desire for a cleaner planet and the macro- and micro- needs of each nation is no easy task. The policies that could solve one problem could have unintended consequences which could have an equally damaging effect on peoples lives and livelihoods.
This is where just-transition policy comes in. This is the strategy of ensuring that no group of people is left behind while restructuring to a more sustainable society.
Every nation, including TT, has been involved in putting policies and strategies in place to achieve the goal of global transition. But for these policies to work people have to be serious.
The carrot and the stick
Luca Corradi, director of the Net Zero Technology Center in Aberdeen, Scotland, and Kishan Kumarsingh, head of multi-lateral environmental agreements in the Ministry of Planning and Development in a conversation with Business Day last week, said there were many ways that those involved in putting policy in place could ensure that country and parties that sign on follow these policies. But there is a "carrot and stick" element to most policies.
Corradi was in TT during the Energy Chamber’s 2023 conference January 23-25, and lectured government officials on just-energy transition policy. He said the North Sea Transition Deal – a plan set out between the UK government and the oil and gas industry to collaborate to transform the sector – was a good example of a transition policy with teeth.
He said the plan – aimed at reducing operation emissions from the production of oil and gas in UK industries – saw companies committing to the reduction of emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, 90 per cent by 2040 and to get to net zero by 2050. He said the policymakers in this regard saw a need for strong measures, as they established the North Sea Transition Authority, a governmental agency which kept the policy and all who signed on to it, on the right track.
“It is a collaborative conversation but it is also able to impose fines, and even revoke the licence to operate for companies that do not comply with the policies,” he said.
Corradi said policy can act in different ways – some may be through enforcement and banning and other ways could be through incentivising and stimulating discussion and debate.
The UK government’s policy decision in 2018 to ban the export and sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles from January 1, 2030 is another good example.
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“It was placed about 12 years in advance,