Guyana’s President and Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Bharrat Jagdeo said there must be an ambitious agreement in Copenhagen that agrees to steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, a demand which is already being met by great resistance.

“We don’t generate large quantities in greenhouse gases, so the big players or the developed countries are India and China. If they reach agreement on this (steep emission cuts) then we have an ambitious agreement,” President Jagdeo told senior media operatives gathered for a Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) interactive session with the Head of State Wednesday.

The Head of State said the attitude of the developed world is one which ignores the voices of the developing nations regardless of their lamentations and justifications.

He was however proud that lobbying efforts have put forest on the agenda and have expanded the Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) concept to include conservation.

REDD currently uses financial incentives to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation.

The deforestation and industrial activities ongoing for decades in the developed world have been cited as the main factors contributing to the climate change phenomenon evident by a frequent rise in sea levels, extreme weather events, and changing precipitation patterns.

This has however become more complex with the failure of the highly industrialised nations to meet the targets agreed upon under the Kyoto protocol agreement, and their reluctance to make such commitments.

Under the 1997 Kyoto protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the industrialised nations, termed as the Annex 1 countries, had agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2012.

However the developed world is being pressed to commit to deeper cuts or pay for the carbon credit services provided by highly forested countries such as Guyana.

The upcoming 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) of the UNFCCC in Copenhagen, Denmark, later this year, will be the platform where this ambitious call will be made.

The conference replaces the Kyoto protocol agreement which was intended to establish a legally binding international agreement whereby all participating nations commit themselves to tackling global warming. (GINA)