Dr. Trotz calls for action to combat climate change
By Tangerine Clarke
Deputy Director and Science Advisor,
Caribbean Community Climate
Change Centre, Dr. Ulric Trotz, has
called for urgent action across the Caribbean
region, and globally, to combat
climate change, stating that activities
have shown climate change is one of the
biggest threats to human existence and
development.
A Guyana-born, resident of Belize,
Dr. Trotz raised an alarm during a
talk at the National Public Library in
Georgetown, recently, noting his first
address on the topic, was to the Caribbean
Tourism Organization (CTO), and
since then, the Caribbean Community
Climate Change Centre, has been working
with governments to address the
pervasive occurrence.
“Urgent action is also being taken to
engage regional parliaments, because
he said, on both sides of the divide,
“we need to understand, this is something
that would affect us all. We need
national consensus and action to start
addressing these issues.”
“Daily lives, agriculture, water, waste,
health systems, and coastal areas,
would be affect, so understanding climate
change, and crafting action plans
to build resilience are key to survival.”
As such, private sector investment
in resources is encouraged, to protect
mangroves, and build sea defense, said
the scientist.
“The healthier our mangroves, the
better the protection,” noted Dr. Trotz,
adding that the highest warm water
levels were recorded over the last four
years.
“Our sea level is rising, and temperatures
Caribbean L 28 ife, Jan. 18–24, 2019
are getting warming,” noted the
scientist.
“Guyana’s oil economy is imminent,
and yes we would prefer a world where
we wouldn’t have to use fossil fuels, but
that is not realistic. We will phase out
some uses of fossils, and hopefully, one
of our aspirations, is by 2050, we will
have a NetZero situation, whereby, all
the emissions we generate, would be
absorbed by our forest, so there is a
balance, and no addition to our greenhouse
budget.”
He raised concern for Guyana’s
rich Rupununi region, a unique ecosystem,
the second most bio-diverse
region in the world, after the Galapagos
Islands, stressing the importance
of preservation.
“Supporting that bio-diversity is the
hydrological regime, and we need to
be very careful how we intervene in
the Rupununi with mega-farms or any
other activity,” said the former director,
Science & Technology Division, Commonwealth
Secretariat, and former secretary,
Commonwealth Science Council
and science adviser to the Commonwealth
secretary general.
“The hydrological regime is a treasure,
I am not saying it must be maintained
in its pristine purity, but development
must take place in such a way,
that it’s allowed to perform its natural
functions,” said Dr. Trotz, who served
as a member of the group of scientists
awarded the Nobel Prize in 2008 in the
capacity of a Review Editor for Chapter
16 on Small Island Developing States
in the Fourth Assessment Report of
the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate
Change (IPCC).
Dr. Trotz, winner of Guyana’s Golden
Arrow of Achievement (AA), the country’s
highest national honor for long
and distinguished service in science
and research, and recently in Barbados,
where he was inducted as an Honorary
Distinguished Fellow of the University
of the West Indies, delivered an
in-depth presentation on the topic of
Climate Change.
Dr. Maya Trotz, environmentalist,
professor, University of South Florida,
and daughter of Dr. Ulric Trotz, who
was the moderator, noted the importance
of reducing carbon emissions in
Guyana, a country on the cusp of oil
wealth, but most vulnerable when it
comes to climate change.
Dr. Maya Trotz, professor of environmental studies, University of South
Florida, and her father Dr. Ulric Trotz, after a recent in-depth talk on Climate
Change at the Georgetown Public Library, in Guyana. Photo by Tangerine Clarke
Barbados’ economy will lag region in 2019
By George Alleyne
Barbados had two international credit
rating upgrades in 60 days, bucking
a 10-year trend of some 22 consecutive
downgrades, but a clear sign that
the economy is not out of the woods
is a recent projection that it will perform
below other regional economies
in 2019.
In fact, the Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC) does not merely forecast a
below par performance for Barbados,
but this United Nations organisation
stated that the island is the only one
that will not measure up to even a full
single digit growth in its economy this
year.
ECLAC has reported that Barbados’
growth will be fractional at 0.5 percent.
Hurricane ravaged Dominica on the
other hand is set to lead the way, and is
far ahead of its peers, in projected economic
growth at 9.0 per cent.
Antigua and Barbuda take up
the distant second with 4.7 percent
growth, closely followed by Guyana
at 4.6 percent.
The others making up the list of
CARICOM member states in the ECLAC
projection are Grenada at 4.2 per cent;
St. Kitts and Nevis, 4.1 per cent; St.
Lucia, 2.9; Haiti, 2.8; Suriname, 2.8;
Bahamas, 2.2; Belize, 2.1; Jamaica, 1.8;
Trinidad and Tobago, 1.6; and St. Vincent
and the Grenadines 1.5.
It is worth noting that this measurement
of economic growth reflects only
a calculation of the extent my which
economic activity expands relative to its
performance last year.
It does not speak to the size of individual
economies, which is a calculation
of volume of goods and services
generated in a given year, GDP.
The CARICOM countries’ growth
projection, among those for the wider
Caribbean and Latin American, comes
against a picture of what the UN organisation
terms ‘economic uncertainties’.
It stated that far from waning these
uncertainties, “will intensify and will
arise from different fronts. This will
have an impact on the growth of the
economies of Latin America and the
Caribbean, which, on average, are seen
expanding 1.7 percent.”
“The greatest risk to the region’s
economic performance over the coming
year continues to be a sharp deterioration
in the financial conditions facing
emerging economies.”
In spite of lagging behind the region,
the rate of turnaround of the Barbados
economy may prove ECLAC’s projections
off target as the groundwork is
currently being laid for a resurgence in
foreign investment through drastically
lowered taxes, and smaller and more
efficient government.
Barbados slashed its across-theboard
corporate levy from 30 percent to
no more than 5.5 percent in response
to a European union dictat to countries
with a sizeable offshore business
sector.
Being among the first countries, or
the only one, to respond to this EU
demand that came with a threat of
punitive sanctions, Barbados expects a
rush in 2019 by international business
corporations fleeing high-tax jurisdictions
and at the same time seeking to
keep their countries in line with the
European demand.
Moving from the mid-year doldrums
of only $221.5 million in foreign
reserves, the island under a new government
more than doubled that amount
to close the year at $522 million.
In a year end message Prime Minister
Mia Mottley had confidently said,
“Barbados is on the road again. Barbados
is this evening, punching once
again, above its weight division.”
Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
Photo by George Alleyne