Since 1974, World Environment Day has been celebrated every year on 5 June, engaging governments, businesses and citizens in an effort to address pressing environmental issues. For too long, we have been exploiting and destroying our planet’s ecosystems. Every three seconds, the world loses enough forest to cover a football pitch and over the last century we have destroyed half of our wetlands. As much as 50 per cent of our coral reefs have already been lost and up to 90 per cent of coral reefs could be lost by 2050, even if global warming is limited to an increase of 1.5°C. Ecosystem restoration means preventing, halting and...

“Bee engaged – Build Back Better for Bees” Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities. Pollination is, however, a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems. Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity. To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face...

In observance of Earth Day 2021, members of the Environmental Policy and Planning Division were featured live on CNC3’s The Morning Brew, hosted by Jessie-May Ventour. This presented an opportunity for technical staff to share insights into the work undertaken by the Ministry of Planning and Development on several areas of environmental interest, namely Climate Change, Biodiversity, Ozone and Waste and Chemicals. Mr. Kishan Kumarsingh (Head, Multilateral Environmental Agreements Unit) and Ms. Sindy Singh (Climate Change Specialist), featured above, collaboratively addressed questions regarding the urgency for climate action, Trinidad and Tobago’s obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate...