PLEASE permit me some space to respond forthrightly to Mr. Peter R Ramsaroop’s ‘Tuesday’s Economic Corner’ titled: ‘Low Carbon – Measuring the economic impact’, and may I point out from the onset that my response does not represent any depth of scholarly research, but instead, it is merely off-the-top-of-my-head, point-for-point response to the merit, or the lack thereof, of arguments put forward by Mr. Ramsaroop – a scholar.

Mr. Ramsaroop claims that during the sub-national Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) consultations, citizens are told that if they support the strategy, they will get ‘free money’. How could this be when every participant at the consultation is provided with a hard copy of the LCDS document? Nowhere in the document is there the proposal of ‘free money’ for supporters. Is Mr. Ramsaroop, in this spurious claim, calling into question the intellect and comprehension of the participants?

Learned readers, the LCDS is not confined or limited to the bilateral relation between Norway and Guyana. Instead, it is Guyana’s proposal of a means of pursuing economic development while combating climate change. The Norwegian and Guyanese Governments have joined forces to create a model approach to economic development that is environmentally friendly. Guyana has the resource for carbon sequestration – its forest; Norway, a state high in carbon emission, has committed to fund Guyana’s model on the interim. The LCDS launched on June 8, 2009 by President Bharrat Jagdeo is a draft document. The hope is that after nationwide consultations, a final position document will be formulated to be advanced at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December of this year.

In addition, the LCDS cannot be reduced to an act of begging. It is a shrewd development proposal, given the manifestations of a rapidly changing global environment, and the significance of Guyana’s pristine rainforest which covers close to 80% of the state’s territory. The success of this proposal hinges upon the measure of international support it can garner. If winning consensus is begging, then other governments should have been this visionary and begun begging a long time ago. Guyana would have been better off perhaps.

Contrary to popular suspicions and speculations, the LCDS will not result in the cessation of economic activities within the context of forestry. It hopes to ensure that those who are involved in forestry-related activities comply with international good practices that significantly reduce environment degradation. In this, Guyana stands to gain financially from its standing forest; this is a new avenue of revenue. This being said, Mr. Ramsaroop’s opinion is either a manifestation of general apprehension shown to something novel, or an intellectual resistance to change for the good.

The process of building a final LCDS is both transparent and inclusive. The Government has produced the draft strategy, bringing into focus a number of variables. The participation of the citizenry is then indulged in an effort to shape a final position of a strategy that is truly Guyanese.

It must be noted that the private sector is in support of the LCDS.

While the economic astuteness of the private sector and some citizens is to be admired, the government is not oblivious to history which points to the many repercussions of privatisation of critical resources. The government cannot turn a blind eye to the realities just to satisfy the insatiable, wanton desires of self-interested people.

In addition, Guyana, like any other small, developing state, does not operate in a vacuum. The inter-dependence reality demands that Guyana fulfill its obligations to international instruments to which it is party. It is the government that has an obligation to the Kyoto Protocol, and by extension, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), not the private sector. It is the government that has a mandate to fulfill under the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme), not the PRIVATE SECTOR. It is the government that has a responsibility to all Guyanese, not the private sector.
GUY SCHOLARI