VISITING Associate Director of UC Davis Energy Institute, in the United States (U.S.), Mr. Gerald Braun said, Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) “makes perfect sense and is a realistic offer.”
Here on a speaking tour coordinated by the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, he is focusing on changes in energy markets and the influence of climate change on them.
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Braun suggested that, in advancing the LCDS, this country should pay attention to other things that can go along and add to it.
He said, primary among them is the local engagement of companies, expressly major foreign ones which are involved in distorting facts about climate change for economical reasons.
“There are those who are saying that climate change is not a major issue when, every day, it is becoming clearer that it is…in many instances these companies are successful in their campaigns. But we have to do something,” Braun warned.
He advised that Guyana not lose sight of the strategy’s main thrust, which is protection of the environment, but remains committed to it, even as it rewards the country with financial gains.
Additionally, Braun said the climate change adaptation tools and concepts hone in on, among other things, change drivers and processes; climate conscious planning; renewable energy supply curves; emerging technologies and solutions; distributed resources and intelligent infrastructure and renewable energy deployment scenarios.
He expressed his support for Guyana’s lead in the climate change fight and said he hopes Guyana will be fully supported in its endeavour.
Braun said history will record the U.S. as failing to take the leading role to tackle climate change.
“This is a tremendous lost opportunity that we did not seize at a crucial time in this decade,” he posited.
However, Braun said:”It is encouraging that the bigger, more industrialised countries like the U.S. are recognising the need for change, if we are to be able to have future generations enjoy planet Earth.
“We have to accept that the response to the mitigation of climate change will be slow. We are making progress though,” he acknowledged.