Guyana’s delegation to the United Nations conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, led by President Bharrat Jagdeo will be leaving shortly.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon last week had told the media that Chairperson of the National Toshao Council Yvonne Pearson will be co-leader of the delegation, which includes Government functionaries from the Office of Climate Change, as well as members of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) Steering Committee.

President Jagdeo was in Brazil on Wednesday last and met with his fellow heads of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization.

During a recent meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, Commonwealth leaders reiterated a united front for trying to seal a firm deal on climate change at the upcoming Copenhagen conference. At that meeting, President Jagdeo noted that the impact of climate change on the Region and the need for significant adaptation funds for many countries to deal with the problem were issues of strategic importance to Guyana and the Region.

In Guyana’s case, the President pointed out that mitigation efforts using the country’s forests to raise funds and the inclusion of the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) in the Copenhagen agreement would see the development of a market for forest carbon which would see the recent funding under the agreement signed with Norway increased significantly. Guyana recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway for US $250M in support for the LCDS over the next five years.

Guyana’s LCDS sets out a new development path that is based on deploying forests to mitigate global climate change and in return receiving payments from the world for the carbon service provided without compromising the sovereignty over the forest in affecting the development prospects of the country’s people.

The LCDS sets out how Guyana can work within the emerging international partnership to provide the world with a model to show that immediate action can stimulate the creation of a low-deforestation, low-carbon, climate-resilient economy.

The international mechanism for delivering a solution is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and parties to that Convention will be meeting later this month in Copenhagen to agree on a new climate change agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. (GINA)