Shift to low carbon economy begins next year
— President announces
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo heads today to the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the message that Guyana is ready to act to help stem global warming.

And he announced yesterday that this country’s push towards a low carbon development economy begins in next year’s national budget which will outline the first wave of priority investments under the new trajectory.

The President is leading this country’s delegation to the talks and will be joining almost 100 other world leaders in what is regarded as one of the most important meetings in history.

In a presentation at the Office of the President complex in Georgetown yesterday afternoon, Mr. Jagdeo also announced that the second draft of this country’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) has been released and copies were being sent to all Members of Parliament. It has also been posted on the website of the Office of Climate Change (www.lcds.gov.gy).

He said Guyana is set to start forging its new economy partly because of the world-leading partnership with Norway signed last month and under which Norway will provide US$250M over the next five years to support Guyana’s climate change model.

The President noted that this is the second largest agreement of its kind in global history, behind the Norway-Brazil Amazon Fund. “We have started to place a value on the services that our forests provide and Norway intends to start paying for those services”, he said, adding that these payments will enable Guyana to start the shift towards a low carbon development trajectory.

He said the government will next year be able to fund about US$30M in
low carbon work and adaptation and the budget will establish the Guyana Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD).

Further details are available in the LCDS and the President urged all MPs to read the document thoroughly, debate it and improve it in the National Assembly.

Recalling the extensive consultations the LCDS has been subjected to over the last four months, Mr. Jagdeo said the process was “one of the most comprehensive national conversations on climate change to take place anywhere in the world”.

He noted that well over 10 per cent of the population attended information sessions and consultations on the LCDS, adding “people across Guyana have engaged with the issue like few others.”

“I challenge anyone to show me any other country in the world where as large a proportion of the population has engaged in an endeavour as comprehensive as this”.

He said the consultations on the LCDS have inspired others across the world.

The President said the national process on climate change is paramount and this will continue in the months after Copenhagen.

He said what happens here will be significantly informed by what emerges in Copenhagen and outlined Guyana’s expectations from that summit.

He declared that Copenhagen will be a failure if it does not result in:

** A binding agreement, including mandatory commitments from developed countries to be codified within an international treaty within six months

** Agreement that even temporary stabilisation of global temperatureof 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels is too high

** Significant financial transfers from developed countries to the developing world.

He welcomed recent announcements of pledges to funds to aid poorer countries in the climate change fight saying while these are still probably too low, they are at least in the right ball park.

President Jagdeo said that if the world is to defeat climate change, it has to unleash the biggest wave of innovation the world has ever seen to stimulate energy efficiency, catalyse a global move to clean energy and redesign the agriculture and forest economies.

He referred to the proposed Copenhagen Launch Fund, noting commitments being made and said the fund can deliver the resources required to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate action on adaptation and climate change-related mitigation.

“I remain confident that if the international community forges a binding commitment in Copenhagen, the people of Guyana will not be found lacking”, he said.

The President said the next LCDS will start to frame the decisions Guyana needs to make if it is to participate in the REDD mechanism as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreement.