The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), scheduled to take place later this month, can change the course of history, according to Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

He was delivering the feature address at a mock Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting involving 31 secondary schools across Trinidad and Tobago-to debate ways to tackle climate change-at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain yesterday.

’The Commonwealth Meeting in Port of Spain is the last summit conference anywhere in the world before the Heads of Government meet in Copenhagen in December,’ said Manning.

’To the extent that no agreement has been struck and there are big question marks over that at this stage, there might very well be an opportunity for these countries meeting around the table to perhaps have some kind of arrangement that can be a preview of coming attractions in Copenhagen and that can be used to bring about an agreement.’

The world’s nations will meet in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, from December 7-18, to try to agree on a pact to reduce emissions when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Meetings held ahead of the negotiations have proven that developed countries and small island states, including Trinidad and Tobago, do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to the reduction of Green House Gas emissions (GHG).

’When the countries of the world meet in Copenhagen in the month of December, they are going to be meeting to consider a matter that is life and death in certain parts of the world,’ Manning said.