By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad and Tobago has received a $40 million policy-based loan from the Caribbean Development Bank to help reinforce “policy changes” in the energy sector, the bank announced.

The policy relates to a sustainable energy programme on which Trinidad embarked in 2011.

The programme is designed to “enhance the ability of the regulatory and legal framework to achieve efficiency, transparency and accountability; promote environmental sustainability of alternative energy fuels; and spur the efficient and rational production of fossil fuels,” according to a CDB statement.

The loan, which was approved by the CDB’s Board of Directors earlier this month, will also involve work in Trinidad’s Compressed Natural Gas Programme.

That includes support for the conversion of the Caribbean country’s fuel usage of vehicles in the transport sector from diesel and gasoline to compressed natural gas.

“This will have positive impacts for the country through a reduction in the fiscal burden of rising fuel subsidies and also improve the environment via the switch to cleaner burning natural gas,” the bank said.