‘What we are trying to do in Guyana has never been tried in the world’ – President Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday formally launched Guyana’s ambitious and historic climate change strategy which aims to transform the national economy to mesh with a new global climate change regime.

He set the stage in a detailed 55-minute address at the International Conference Center in Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, drawing praise immediately across the board from different stakeholders.

This composite photo shows a section of stakeholders and participants at the conference yesterday.

“This will place Guyana on a new level of international acceptance in the green policies and any discerning eco-tourist will derive great comfort from such strong governmental policies”, he told the Guyana Chronicle as groups went into break-out sessions to deliberate on the 58-page document.

Dr. Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Chairman of yesterday’s all-day proceedings, said the launch of the strategy buttresses sustainable development.

“This is transformation in the biggest sense…we need to buy in the world and offer win, win solutions”, he told a packed conference centre where additional chairs had to be placed to accommodate invitees and participants.

Luncheon said the three months of consultations to follow will allow the strategy to be comprehensively understood and before adoption it will be tabled for debate in Parliament.

The tremendous turnout yesterday saw scores of persons having to resort to seats outside of the Conference hall during Guyana’s launch of the ambitious and historic climate change strategy. (Adrian Narine photos)

President Jagdeo said yesterday’s deliberations were just the beginning of the consultative process on the document through which the government is seeking to reconcile competing interests.

“What we are trying to do in Guyana has never been tried in the world”, he declared.

He said Norway is helping the consultation process and is supporting a study to assess the state of forest law enforcement and governance here.

The study, Mr. Jagdeo said, should be ready by September.

Ambassador Hans Brattskar, Director of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative and three other team members flew here last week to advance the Norwegian aid programme for Guyana’s deforestation model.

The Norwegian envoy and his team met President Jagdeo and top administration officials for talks on the plan.

Under a memorandum of understanding Mr. Jagdeo and Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg signed in the Norwegian capital Oslo in February, Guyana is getting significant backing, including financial support, from Norway, for its model to push saving rainforests as a central platform in the global plan to avert climate change disaster.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is trying to forge a successor agreement to the current Kyoto protocol that is to be endorsed in Copenhagen, Denmark in December, and President Jagdeo has been leading the Guyana lobby for forest preservation to be a central plank of that new convention.

In the agreement with Norway, Mr. Jagdeo and Mr. Stoltenberg agreed that “determined and concerted action is needed.”

“They emphasised that efforts under the UNFCCC towards Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) efforts must be properly designed to ensure that deforestation is significantly reduced in countries where it is already occurring, and avoided in countries where deforestation rates are still low”, the document said.

The two countries have agreed that the bilateral co-operation will be founded on a broad-based, transparent, inclusive, multi-stakeholder national strategy developed in Guyana.

“Crucial components will be the creation of low-carbon employment and investment opportunities in Guyana, sustained efforts to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, strengthening open, transparent forest governance, and establishing an international monitoring, reporting, and verification system for Guyana's forests. A financial mechanism run by a reputable international organization will be set up through which performance based compensation can be channelled to implement Guyana's low-carbon development strategy”, the memorandum of understanding said.

President Jagdeo yesterday assured that mining and forestry will continue in Guyana but said operations will have to confirm to low carbon development (practices that reduce the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere).

He said an Indigenous Development Fund is planned with some payments for forest lands to flow directly to communities.

He stressed that the climate change threat is real for Guyanese, referring to the disastrous floods of 2005 which affected thousands along the coast and other parts of the country.

“We want to do something about climate change”, he said, noting that Guyana’s pristine rainforests of about 15 million hectares are a “first class asset”.

The forests are part of some of the “most valuable real estate on the planet”, he said, but pointed out that for the Amerindians, the forest is also a “spiritual home”.

He said the low carbon development strategy sets a new path for economic development, referring to the planned Amalia Falls hydro-electricity project to put Guyana on a clean energy footing and the 141,000 hectares set aside in Canje Basin for bio-fuel production.

Areas identified for low carbon economic development projects include the Intermediate Savannahs and the Rupununi, Mr. Jagdeo said.

The emerging carbon market, he said, provides an historic opportunity but rainforest and other countries have to act together.

The President said that for Guyana, REDD includes avoided deforestation and getting this into a post-Copenhagen agreement is important.