– green economy could earn Guyana US$500M per year – President Jagdeo
THE world is ‘heading towards a disaster’ as a result of the climate change phenomenon but President Bharrat Jagdeo believes the challenge presents some of the greatest opportunities. Speaking at last Friday’s Champion of the Earth reception ceremony, the Head of State told the huge gathering that the transformation of an economy on a green trajectory will reap benefits similar to those that were achieved when Information Communication Technology (ICT) was introduced in the 1990s.
“It (ICT) led to a transformation of the world and the creation of trillions of dollars of value on the stock exchange and right across the world. The green economy is the next catalyst for that huge leap forward,” President Jagdeo said.
The green economy is considered a rapidly developing new economic development model that promotes renewable energy as a substitute for fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas.
The model is being championed by some progressive leaders in the developed world who President Jagdeo said are not taking the necessary action at the global level but are highlighting its benefits.
For a small developing country like Guyana, the Head of State said such an economy holds the potential to be the largest sector in the country.
“If the carbon prices go the way they should go and the development model now values the externalities of fossil fuel at the right price, we could earn US$500M a year from this industry,” President Jagdeo said.
Such an earning, the President said, is significantly larger on a net basis than is earned at present in every other sector of the country. He made specific reference to rice, sugar, gold and bauxite. “It is a huge opportunity,” President Jagdeo said as he called for cooperation of every Guyanese in every sector of the society for it to be a reality and urged them to ignore the few naysayers who are negative about everything.
“The benefits that will flow three years into that future, we have to start doing the heavy lifting today,” President Jagdeo declared.
Guyana’s economy is taking on a low carbon course with a strategy pioneered by President Jagdeo that is proving to the world that the problem of climate change can be tackled if the right economic incentives are given to support the sustainability of resources that help in this fight.
Guyana’s revolutionary Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) places the country’s forest resources at the forefront of a plan.
In November 2009, Guyana succeeded in sealing a Memorandum of Understanding with Norway for the receipt of US$250M by 2015 in performance-based payments.
It represents one of the first attempts between a developed and a developing country to work together to implement a national scale model on how forests can be deployed to address climate change without compromising sovereignty or national development priorities.
Norway has promised up to US$30M this year and President Jagdeo disclosed that Parliament has been notified that, within a matter of months, the money will be coming to Guyana. Part of the sum will be funding the hydropower project at Amaila Falls.
Construction is expected this year and within three years renewable energy will be the source of cheaper and more reliable electricity generation. (GINA)