News Releases

UWI Partners with University of Texas and UTT to Fight Climate Change and Boost Economy

For Release Upon Receipt - May 6, 2019

St. Augustine


Professor Andrew Jupiter

 

ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago. May 06, 2019. The University of the West Indies is partnering with the University of Texas and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) to create a new clean industry that will store greenhouse gasses underground and eliminate Trinidad and Tobago’s contribution to human-induced climate change.

Surrounded by the warm Caribbean Sea, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is susceptible to sea level rise and tropical storms, both of which are expected to increase in intensity as the world warms. In addition, although the oil and gas industry accounts for 40% of gross domestic product and 80% of exports, it has been declining in recent years, prompting interest in developing a new carbon storage industry to provide a source of jobs. And although T&T emits a relatively small amount of greenhouse gasses compared with large nations, it is in the top 10 highest in per capita emissions globally due to its industrialized economy.

Professor of Practice Andrew Jupiter of The UWI St. Augustine Campus Petroleum Studies Unit explained how the collaboration between the three universities will help to mitigate climate change. “Now that we have this formal partnership started and we’re making progress at the political level on our nation’s plan to tackle climate change impacts, we have no doubt in our mind that Trinidad and Tobago will be a country that sets a precedent,” said Jupiter said. “For other Caribbean nations that have yet to act, here’s a way forward.”

“I’m enthusiastic about the start of what I hope will be a long and fruitful partnership,” said Dr. Katherine Romanak, a research scientist with the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology’s Gulf Coast Carbon Center. The Bureau of Economic Geology is a unit of the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences. “By setting a precedent for what’s possible in an international collaboration on climate change mitigation, we hope others will be inspired to follow our footsteps.”

Carbon capture and geologic storage (CCS) is a method of capturing greenhouse gasses from industrial facilities and storing them underground so they are not released into the atmosphere where they can contribute to human-caused climate change. In February and April 2019, The UWI, University of Texas and UTT signed two memoranda of understanding that laid out plans for organizing scientific meetings and workshops and sharing facilities, with the goal of deploying CCS technology in T&T.

The three universities have been working on the collaboration since 2017. However, Dr. Romanak and Professor Jupiter fast-tracked the agreement in December 2018 during the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Both researchers took part in a panel discussion at the conference. The panel was the only official conference event dedicated to CCS.

Other alternatives to CCS, such as storing carbon in forests or the soil, may seem like attractive mitigation options, but many experts believe that CCS has the potential to make the biggest impact on the country’s emissions. That’s because storing carbon in forests or using renewable energy options such as solar and wind currently require large amounts of land that the small island nation doesn’t have.

“For us, we’ve been declining in [oil and gas] production so rapidly that something needs to be done quickly to protect our economy,” said David Alexander, a petroleum researcher at The University of Trinidad and Tobago. “Someone else may perceive this as a problem, but really it’s not — it’s an opportunity to create more jobs and wealth while implementing sustainability measures that address our emissions.”

“Even if the whole island was trees, no houses, it wouldn’t be enough,” Jupiter said during the panel.

The nation’s representatives are looking at a portfolio of mitigation options, but implementing CCS is likely to have the biggest effect on the nation’s emissions, Jupiter said.

To demonstrate the role of the technology, Jupiter and Alexander have recommended that CCS be included in T&T’s “technology needs assessment” document, which outlines the nationwide strategy to mitigate emissions. With this document, the T&T can access critical international funding, such as the Green Climate Fund that is aimed at their specific needs.

The researchers are also exploring the idea of holding their first CCS workshop for local stakeholders in September.

End.

About The UWI

For the past 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and four campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Asia, and Africa such as the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development, the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. 

As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. Times Higher Education has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018, and was the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.  For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

Contact