GUYANA’S ambitious and historic Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) was supported during the recently concluded 24th Annual Regional Conference of the Caribbean, the Americas and Atlantic Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) that was successfully hosted by Guyana.

This is according to Speaker of the National Assembly Mr. Ralph Ramkarran during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle last Thursday.

Alluding to some of the critical issues discussed and affecting the region during the recent meeting, he said in relation to climate change “the discussions led to a general support for Guyana’s position on its Low Carbon Development Strategy.”

“Delegates became aware of it and they were supportive of it…and (they) added their own experiences to climate change in their own countries,” he stated.

“For example, we do not get hurricanes here in Guyana but hurricanes affect our region very badly,” he pointed out.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, at the opening of the conference, had challenged the delegates to strongly advocate for an ambitious climate change agreement in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.

Mr. Hinds said: “We must join in advocating, vociferously, for an ambitious climate change agreement in Copenhagen which puts the world on a sustainable pathway to avoid dire consequences, of which there are already indications.”

In this regard, he pointed out that Guyana has adopted the LCDS under the theme ‘Transforming the Economy Whilst Combating Climate Change’.

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

The widespread national consultations on the historic draft Low Carbon Development Strategy are being conducted over three months and the Government aims to table the plan at the December summit for inclusion in the new climate change regime.

The consultations continue to attract substantial participation and interest from Guyanese who are given the opportunity to contribute to the policy.

Guyana’s strategy is based on avoiding deforestation and preserving its standing forests in exchange for payment for this service from the international community.

The delegation, which includes Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Grenada, Antigua, British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Jamaica, United Kingdom (U.K), and Canada, during the three days conference focused their discussions on pressing socio-economic and political matters that threaten to hinder the regions’ development.

The conference was held under the theme ‘Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy; Confronting Challenges and Enhancing Cooperation within the Region’.

Guyana was represented at the forum by a bipartisan team which comprises two members of the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and one from the Opposition.

Active CPA branches now exist in 169 national, State, provincial and territorial parliaments, with a total membership of approximately 16,000 parliamentarians.

The association, founded in 1911, as the Empire Parliamentary Association and renamed the CPA in 1949, serves to provide easier exchange of information and facilitate closer understanding and more frequent intercourse among those engaged in the parliamentary governance of the various Commonwealth States.

Last year’s conference was held in Westminster in London, England.