After Copenhagen…
– President Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has reiterated that Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is a development tool that has to be advanced.

The Head of State said so in reply to questions from the media at his Christmas Eve press conference at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

He said the LCDS stands to benefit on several fronts despite the setbacks at the recent “chaotic and mismanaged” global climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“We are ahead of the game because of our agreement with Norway,” he said, referring to the accord that country signed with Guyana last month, under which the former will provide US$250M to the LCDS up to 2015.

President Jagdeo said the US$10 billion a year pledged for vulnerable countries, up to 2012, would allow supplemental financing that would compensate Guyana to the true value of the agreement with Norway.

This country can get another US$40M a year through that pact and more is likely, he said, adding: “That’s extremely positive for Guyana”.

He said, for example, Guyana has moved from flooding to a drought-like situation and is using close to 1,000 gallons of diesel in Essequibo every two days to pump water.

“And they need more money now, because they have to pump water into the canals. The water is so low they are pumping from the creeks now in many places, for irrigation purposes. So you move from an extreme of losing approximately an average 10 per cent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per annum, over the past ten years, to now another extreme drought and it’s going to get even worse,” President Jagdeo warned.

He went on: “So that is why we all have to be hopeful and we all have to push to this agreement and I am hopeful that (U.S.) President Obama will do the right thing, too.”

President Jagdeo said the lack of progress in Copenhagen will not stop the LCDS from moving forward because it is a development strategy that has to be advanced.

“We still have to do the things that we need to do. I keep saying that this is a development strategy first and foremost.

“It is not an environmental strategy so all of the things listed there – making our economy more climate resilient – we have to do this whether this global agreement fails or succeeds,” he maintained.

HYDROPOWER

President Jagdeo said hydropower needs to be pursued, not only because it helps with the atmosphere but it can save US$120M annually on imported fossil fuel.

“We need to build more roads into our savannahs, of course, ensuring that the eco-systems are preserved and in tact, but also to do agriculture there to develop those areas,” he stated.

The President said flood control and water management need to be improved and that is why Government recently bought eight excavators worth about $400M, to start the Hope Canal project.

“I think the consultants are just wrapping up the design and that money is coming from our own funds. The cost is $3.6 billion and we think, if we do the excavation ourselves, we will get it down to about $3 billion.

“But we have to do it. I am not waiting for foreign funding because that gives us better control over the conservancy, so when we have excess water, we can blow more of it out and improve our ability to manage the water which would be critical in the future,” he stated.

Recognising the indigenous communities, President Jagdeo said: “Whether it is climate change or not, we need to ensure that they have food security in these villages and support to do that and, secondly, some ability to generate income.”

He said, since the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) assumed office, huge efforts have been made to improve the communities, in terms of education, health and almost every other basic needs approach.

“Our relationship with the indigenous people and their rights have been enhanced significantly. But, from an income perspective, things have not changed much,” he admitted

President Jagdeo said: “If you produce cassava and you can’t get it to the market in Georgetown, it is too bulky, it is perishable and then people on the coast are producing cassava to sell on the market, too, So what do you do? How do you find some activity to change people’s lives so that they can earn? So you have some wonderful new approaches.”

He said funds have been set aside to conduct a series of activities. “And that’s not going to be dependent on just climate change. So our LCDS has to move forward.

EASIER

“If we get money through our forests, then it makes this easier. We can do it faster, the things we want to do and we will still get some money from the Norwegian arrangement and, hopefully, that will increase. So this doesn’t stop the LCDS from moving forward,” President Jagdeo said.

“In fact, we already have resources and the more we can generate through our forests, it accelerates our implementation of the LCDS. But I have to look at other sources of funding for these activities, too, because they are critical to our survival and prosperity,” he offered.

President Jagdeo said, from a national perspective, the accord reached in Copenhagen was “good for us, because forests have moved forward”.

He cautioned, though, that advance has to be situated in a good global deal because (without such a deal) the market for forest carbon will not develop significantly and “we are not going to get the type of money that we can get if a market mechanism is developed”.

According to him, Guyana’s advocacy on climate change, over the years, has paid off.

He said the resulting high profile for the country from the government’s international lobby is good for the national image and identity.

“…that is a benefit that you cannot put in monetary terms.”

President Jagdeo said a huge achievement for Guyana, too, is the progress on the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) concept.

He said the source of generating funds for the LCDS is the forestry sector and, over the past two or three years, Guyana has been trying to broaden that concept.

President Jagdeo recalled that, under the original conception of REDD, countries like Guyana could not have received any money and the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, did not include forests.

“So our lobby had to be to widen the concept from REDD to REDD Plus, to add conservation of forestry to cutting deforestation rates.

“We succeeded in broadening the concept before Copenhagen and getting a significant deal of support from the developing and developed world,” he said, adding that Guyana managed to get this included in the Copenhagen Accord and in the formal decisions of the conference.

“We have succeeded on every count to get REDD included in its broader conception…that’s a huge, huge, huge achievement for Guyana – we have corrected the deficiency of the Kyoto Protocol; we now have REDD Plus included as a COP (Conference of Parties) decision emerging out of Copenhagen.”
“That’s huge for us,” the President said.