THE anonymous `Peeping Tom’ columnist of the Kaieteur News should stop peeping from the shadows and come out into the open where he could get a better and clearer view of the world of reality.
People who hide, sneak and peek get a narrow view of things and this is clear from the latest cloudy sighting offered by ‘Peeping Tom’ in his forecast of Monday, May 30, headed `The LCDS is not about Guyana’s future’. The Peeper concludes that the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) “will by next year find itself abandoned like so many of our country’s development plans.”
‘Peeping Tom’, after poking around in his dark cave, concludes that the LCDS will be forgotten by the time a new President is elected next year and that Guyana will have no “uses” (sic) for the LCDS.
The Peeper has discerned that a shift in emphasis from carbon dioxide to other pollutants will have a devastating impact on global carbon markets on which the LCDS hangs. But he also says that this will not be the end of the LCDS and leaves the conclusion hanging.
‘Peeping Tom’ sees the end of the LCDS and still does not see the end of the LCDS. This confused state of mind is not unusual when those long living in dark caves are suddenly exposed to the bright light of reality. Tom probably needs transition lenses to help him gradually get accustomed to the light.
Unlike ‘Peeping Tom’ who is enveloped in murky secrecy, the LCDS is not shrouded in mystery and is an open and transparent process subject to public scrutiny.
While ‘Peeping Tom’ is wrapped up in foggy thinking only about scheduled national elections next year, the LCDS is a development strategy designed to serve Guyana and Guyanese long after many more elections to come. And it has won broad acceptance at the level of political parties and many other stakeholders.
Under the LCDS, which the Peeper predicts has no future beyond 2011, Guyana has secured US$250M in development support up to 2015, but ‘Peeping Tom’ feels that such a partnership is somehow reprehensible.
Guyana has stated that such payments as agreed in the arrangement with Norway are for the services our forests provide in the battle to offset global catastrophic climate change. How can payments for services to help preserve life on earth as we know it be “morally reprehensible”?
Norway, to its credit, has accepted some responsibility for contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and is leading the way among developed countries in developing meaningful strategies to cope with one of mankind’s greatest crises. It has forged similar partnerships with Brazil and Indonesia and is an acknowledged leader in the climate change battle.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has noted that the world urgently needs examples of how progressive partnerships can prove that solutions to climate change are possible and Norway and Guyana are breaking new ground in the search for solutions. He has pointed out too that there is no solution to climate change without action on forestry.
Just last week, heads of state and government, including President Jagdeo, ministers and other representatives of some 50 countries, met in Oslo, Norway and concluded an agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. Around US$4 billion has so far been pledged for the period 2010–2012 for measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. This figure is expected to rise in the weeks ahead.
“Measures to reduce deforestation are the quickest and least expensive way of achieving large emission cuts. At today’s meeting, around 50 countries agreed on a framework for the rapid implementation of measures for reducing deforestation. This could be an important step forward in the run-up to the climate negotiations in Mexico later this year,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference.
At that meeting, Norwegian Minister of the Environment Erik Solheim highlighted Guyana’s efforts to shape the world’s response to deforestation and said that “when history is written, it will record President Jagdeo as one of the founding fathers of REDD”.
Germany, France, Norway, the U.S., Britain, Australia and Japan pledged $4 billion to finance REDD Plus through 2012, with Denmark and Sweden adding $73 million more to the effort last week. Other commitments are still being finalised.
This clearly gives the lie to the assertion by `Peeping Tom’ that the focus has shifted away from carbon emissions.
Guyana’s LCDS has become a national scale model that can be adopted by other tropical forest countries and its benefits will accrue to generations of Guyanese long after the scheduled national elections next year. It has been accepted by the National Assembly and has gained recognition by the majority of Amerindian communities and other stakeholders around the country.
The revised LCDS presented last week sets out Guyana’s strategy to forge a new low carbon economy over the coming decade. It identifies seven priorities that will be the initial focus of LCDS implementation in 2010 and 2011 and gives an outline of the priorities for 2012-2015. It also sets out the framework for further consultation and strategy development on Guyana’s long term low carbon development.
President Jagdeo has noted that there is no solution to climate change without action on forestry and this has been recognised at the highest levels internationally.
`Peeping Tom’ and his group may be jealous of the acclaim and accolades coming from around the world for the President and the LCDS and are not likely to come to grips with reality.
They may wish it otherwise, but the LCDS is a strategy for the future.