WITH interest mounting around the world about what the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, will achieve to stem global warming, Guyana’s profile in the cause is growing.

Adding to endorsements around the world of this country’s model enshrined in the Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) last week was Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Climate Change Centre Scientific Adviser, Dr Ulric Trotz.

He said Guyana’s thrust on climate change is not only the recommendable pathway for the future, but timely and worthy of full support from all Guyanese.

His backing came at the start of a lecture series titled ‘Climate Change – Challenges to Governance in CARICOM Countries’ in Georgetown, which is underway with support of the British High Commission in Guyana.

“Our forest and the REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation Plus) initiative, in my opinion, offer an excellent opportunity for Guyana to rally around an issue that should not be in the political arena,” he said.

Trotz added: “With good governance, the REDD initiative could provide the platform from where we could start to heal the wounds, to join hands across the ethnic and political divide that now threatens to tear us further apart, and to start on the road of building a Guyana that is prosperous, undeniably democratic, and unquestionably free.”

The University of Guyana is supporting the lecture series in the run-up to the Copenhagen summit, where President Bharrat Jagdeo will join some 90 other world leaders to try to reach agreement on at least the principles of a binding international climate change agreement.

And Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative, Clause Eckleman, last week hailed Guyana’s pioneering efforts in the climate change fight.

During a two-day workshop to discuss concerns regarding financial reward for countries with high forest cover, he said other countries in the region can learn from Guyana, which has vast knowledge in pioneering for compensation.

Eckleman said that during a meeting of the Caribbean Sub-group of the Latin American and Caribbean Forestry Commission in Ecuador, the Directors of Forestry in heavily forested countries expressed concerns at not being able to benefit from transfer payments for forestry preservation.

He noted that countries like Guyana and Suriname, which have an 80 per cent landmass, low population density, and about four persons per square kilometer, have basically maintained their forest cover. Cuba was also named as having a 30 per cent net gain in forest cover in comparison to Barbados and Antigua, which have very little forest of less than five per cent.

These countries are reducing emissions by avoiding land-use changes or deforestation, and can gain financially from their forestry preservation efforts, he said.

President Jagdeo further pitched the LCDS during the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which ended in Port of Spain, Trinidad last Sunday.

Climate change took centre-stage at that meeting, with Commonwealth leaders inviting Denmark’s Prime Minister, Lars Rasmussen, French President, Nicolas Sarkozy and United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon for special sessions on the issue.

President Jagdeo announced in Trinidad that Guyana has been building a coalition with other tropical forest countries for the Copenhagen summit.

Guyana and Papua New Guinea will be co-hosting an event during the summit, and this country has been binding with Suriname, Belize, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and others in the run-up to Copenhagen, he said during a lecture last Monday at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Guyana is also a party to the declaration issued by Amazon Basin countries in Manaus, Brazil last month, when President Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva hosted a summit ahead of the Copenhagen conference.

“We hope that we can influence what takes place in Copenhagen, and this is why our model is getting so much publicity around the world,” he said.

Mr. Jagdeo recalled that Britain’s Prince Charles recently spoke about Guyana’s model, and said other countries are using it.

At a symposium hosted last week by the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud, noted that the LCDS presents a unique model of compatibility between climate change and the generation of a new level of economic activities.

He added that Guyana holds the leadership position in articulating an LCDS, while at the same time seeking to garner much-needed incentives to aid in its development.

He said an integral part of the LCDS is the development of green technology as a means of promoting economic activities that will ultimately lead to a better quality of life for Guyanese.

The minister said that as recognised in the National Development Strategy (NDS) and the National Competitiveness Strategy (NCS), which are intrinsically linked to the LCDS, a crucial issue is the concept of sustainable and economic development.

Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Mr. Tota Mangar pointed out that the draft LCDS was critically analyzed by the university, and some of the inputs identified in the analysis have been considered for the revised document.

He added that the LCDS is a brilliant and pragmatic concept that is gaining momentum internationally, and that it is fully endorsed by UG.

IAST Director, Professor Suresh Narine, said Guyana’s LCDS is revolutionary, at a time when countries are grappling with the adverse effects of the changing climate.

The LCDS came in for special mention, too, during a meeting here of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO), attended by delegates from Guyana, Brazil, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia.

The four-day meeting looked at ‘Community-Based Sustainable Tourism’, and at the opening, Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister, Manniram Prashad said the LCDS aims to expand on economic and social reforms and aid in the fight against climate change.

“Climate change is not just an environment issue; it is a development issue. We view climate change through the lens of poverty reduction and human development. The support of the international community, ACTO and the UN must be guided by a vision of inclusive and sustainable development. Guyana can lead the way in building a green, low-carbon economy,” the minister stated.

At the UWI lecture, President Jagdeo stated that Guyana had a long march to get where it is today, “to develop the REDD concept and to get REDD expanded to REDD-Plus (avoiding deforestation, sustainable forestry management, reforestation, afforestation).”

Mr. Jagdeo noted that REDD-Plus has been accepted as part of the United Nations lexicon and there is now significant support from the developed and developing countries for this new concept.

He recalled the offer he made about three years ago to deploy this country’s forests in the cause of climate change, and reiterated that to get REDD approved in a global climate change agreement, a national scale model was needed.

“We are the only country that has done this so far. We have a national scale model covering the entire forest.”

He outlined the development and central elements of the LCDS, in which forest carbon is a commodity which Guyana wants to establish as a commodity which could be traded because it has a value to the world.

He stressed that national acceptance of the LCDS was “very important for us,” and referred to the nationwide three-month consultation on the draft with stakeholders and others.

“We are going out to tender for an internationally replicable Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) system that will use remote sensing devices, satellite imagery to identify any change of carbon stocks in our forests. With those techniques, we will be able to assess whether the country performs in accordance with the agreement,” the President said.

He recalled the signing last month of the Memorandum of Understanding with Norway, which will provide US$250M to support the LCDS over the next five years.

Whether there is financing or not in Copenhagen, Guyana already has an MOU with Norway, which Mr. Jagdeo said was built on the work done in the Informal Working Group after the G20 meeting in London in April this year.

“Out of that work that we started, 37 countries have now developed a model which says that for US$5 billion annually over the next five years, we can cut deforestation rates by 25 per cent around the world – the largest single climate change abatement action anywhere in the world,” he stated.

“When we get to Copenhagen, we can say we have dealt with all the issues (related to forestry)…through our model…,” the President said.