In 2015, the climate conversation in T&T was further driven through the 2nd People’s Climate March in Port of Spain. Key partners got on board such as the EU, UN and French Embassy, and many climate and environmentally focused organizations, NGOs and individuals joined in. Participants all came together at the end to create a heart formation at the end in the Queen’s Park Savannah, for the second time.

In 2015, the climate conversation in T&T was further driven through the 2nd People’s Climate March in Port of Spain. Key partners got on board such as the EU, UN and French Embassy, and many climate and environmentally focused organizations, NGOs and individuals joined in. Participants all came together at the end to create a heart formation at the end in the Queen’s Park Savannah, for the second time. 

In 2015, world’s leaders, including our very own from Trinidad & Tobago attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP 21). This vital meeting came at a time when there was finally worldwide agreement in the scientific, government and private communities that global warming is reality, and where the average temperature increase over the last 30 years was found to be about 0.8°C at that time.

In Trinidad & Tobago where so much of our economy and development has been built upon fossil fuels, for a long time we felt that it wasn’t our place to talk about climate change. However, as was driven and communicated in a strong way at the 2015 People’s Climate March in Port of Spain, the opposite is in fact true. It is our responsibility. As one of the biggest beneficiaries of fossil fuels, it is our responsibility to engage in these talks and use our resources, creativity and genius as a nation to become a leader in the solutions.

The conversation which was carried at the POS Climate March event in 2015 focused on how we can re-invest now into a renewable energy landscape which could pave the way for our becoming a leading example regionally, and equally importantly, where such actions could give us the energy security we need for future generations to come. The event also aimed to awaken participants and the wider public on the swathes of beautiful untouched landscape we are blessed with in T&T, and where these are some of our most precious resources to draw in tourists, nature seekers and other types of investors who might hopefully one day turn their eyes more quickly to Trinidad & Tobago if we show ourselves to be leaders in environmental, economic and social sustainability.

IAMovement organized and hosted the 2015 POS People’s Climate March with these sentiments in mind, aiming to foster them in a greater way amongst the Trinbagonian community, and in turn to advocate for our proactive participation in the outcomes of the Paris Climate Conference. The 2015 POS People’s Climate March was larger than the previous event in 2014 by about 3-times, seeing some 400-500 participants showing up and joining in. The #POStoParis People’s Climate March 2015 took place at Nelson Mandela Park and the Queen’s Park Savannah, while thousands of other events simultaneously took place worldwide.