Port of Spain: Trinidad and Tobago has signed a financing agreement for $10.67 million with the European Union for an environment programme. Photo: Caribbean Journal

The funding, which was announced this week by Sustainable Development and Planning Minister Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie, is coming from the EU’s Environmental Programme for Trinidad and Tobago.

It will go toward the government’s implementation of the National Environmental Policy, Forest Policy, Protected Areas Policy and National Climate Change Policy. It covers a period of eight years.

The new “protected areas management system” will cover areas such as the use of clean technologies, using compressed natural gas to run public buses and the installation of solar lighting, among others.

“The purpose of the agreement is to assist government in implementing national policy to achieve these objectives,” Tewarie said. “The agreement should be seen as a tool to help execute and implement policy by providing financial assistance and guidelines to implementation.”