Prime Minister Patrick Manning has “categorically rejected” the per capita breakdown of greenhouse emissions. Mr. Manning made the comment at a news conference, one day before the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009.

The conference was hosted by the Prime Minister along with Commonwealth Secretary General, H.E. Kamalesh Sharma, at the International Financial Centre in Port of Spain.

Manning added that while Trinidad and Tobago had a responsibility to reduce its own emissions and would do so on a voluntary basis, the per capita argument is “a convenient argument for countries with large populations.”

“When the earth responds to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it does not do so on a per capita basis. It responds on the basis of absolute emissions. The population of China is 1000 times the size of the population of Trinidad and Tobago and when we look at the question of absolute emissions, China is the largest emitter in
the world, followed by the United States. Therefore the per capita argument is one that we consider unsustainable,” the Prime Minister said.

Manning also commented on CHOGM’s intention to formulate a position on climate change for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. He said the CHOGM discussion is one where its diverse members will seek out a way to add value to the climate change debate.

“CHOGM is a session designed to discuss and to see how we can add value to a process that has been ongoing for some time, and which in the eyes of some is threatening not to have a successful and amicable conclusion. A political statement out of CHOGM is not a statement that one can take lightly; it comes with the weight of so many countries and people,” Manning added.

When asked about the attendance of non-Commonwealth members; Denmark Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, UN Secretary General Ban Kai Moon and French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to the CHOGM, Prime Minister Manning admitted that he had invited Rasmussen and Sarkozy after discussion with the UN Secretary General and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He also indicated that their presence was tied into the Commonwealth’s concerns about the direction of the imminent climate change meeting.

He noted “We thought that we could add value and add weight to the voice of the Commonwealth if other non-Commonwealth agencies and countries are associated with us.”