Significant milestone…
GUYANA is this month to begin accessing funds for its Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) under the groundbreaking agreement signed with Norway just under a year ago.
President Bharrat Jagdeo Thursday announced that within 10 days, the first tranche of the US$30M from Norway will be deposited in the Guyana Redd + Investment Fund (GRIF), opening the flow of funds for several vital development projects.
This, he said, is the first payment of its kind anywhere in the world that represents the leading edge of the new global low-carbon economy, although it is six months late.
Under the LCDS, Guyana is deploying its forests to mitigate climate change while also gaining financial and other support for doing so.
Norway and Guyana in November last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), under which it was agreed that Norway will pay US$30M this year and possibly up to US$250M by 2015 for this country to preserve its 16 million hectares rainforest.
At the formal opening of the annual GuyExpo trade fair and exhibition at the Sophia complex in Georgetown Thursday night, the President said the first payment will enable Guyana to begin preparing to remove its entire economy from fossil fuel dependence.
It will also form part of the government’s investment in the hydro-electricity plant at Amaila Falls on the Kuribrong River in Region Eight, he said.
He added that the work to ensure that Amaila is built in a way that adheres to internationally recognised financial and social and environmental standards is now well underway, in parallel with detailed financial and engineering work that will lead to construction of the hydro-power plant.
“Once we are sure that the environmental and social impacts are taken care of, the government will authorise the contractor of the access road to commence the construction,” he said.
This is a historic milestone in the development of the country, and the President projected that in the next 20, years the people of Guyana will have access to cheaper and reliable energy.
Also, ownership of the plant will be reverted to the citizens, thereby allowing electricity prices to be reduced, all part of the long-term thinking that will create success for Guyana, Mr. Jagdeo said.
Other benefits from the Amaila Falls project will include electricity supply to all Amerindian villages not now connected to the coastal power system, he said.
The people of Guyana can feel genuinely proud that they are leading the way in addressing such profound global issues, Mr. Jagdeo noted.
Guyana, the President noted, stands uniquely qualified to participate in the economy of the future, as it is among the first countries in the world to see the changing of the global economy as climate change and other phenomena impact on the global community.
Guyana, he added, was also the first to realise that it was not just a threat but also a significant opportunity to leap-frog an old fashioned model of development.
In this regard, he referred to other achievements since the last GuyExpo, pointing to the increase in trade between Brazil and Guyana with the construction of the Takutu Bridge which now links the two countries; continued improvements to the road system; and work in partnership with the private sector to expand the fibre-optic and other telecommunications networks across the country.
“So, we are constructing an economic and physical infrastructure that supports Guyanese enterprises as they seek to access new global opportunities,” he said.
The President first announced in New York that Guyana will agree to the current World Bank mechanism to access the first US$30M tranche of climate change funds from Norway because he wants to move the LCDS along.
He said there last month that because he wants to get the LCDS moving, he told Norway’s Environment Minister Erik Solheim that Guyana will “sign on to whatever they have now, just to get it (the LCDS) moving …because I can’t wait any more; the indigenous people can’t wait any more.”
The President noted that Guyana had, since January, met the conditions for the funds to start flowing from the agreement with Norway, but existing World Bank conditions for releasing the money were holding up key projects. The World Bank is the agency through which the funds are to be disbursed.
The President’s announcement came at a special panel session in New York of former United States President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative (CGI) which looked at `Investing in the World’s Forests’.
He maintained that the World Bank’s traditional rules of accessing funds were delaying key aspects of this country’s model of a non-polluting pathway to development  which came in for more praise from other members of the high-level panel, including former Australian Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
Mr. Jagdeo pointed out that Guyana has built a momentum in its climate change programme and delays in disbursing the funds from Norway will cause him to lose credibility since “people will say this model can’t work.”
“We’re trying to demonstrate that you can have a non-polluting pathway to development,” President Jagdeo said, maintaining that delivering resources on the ground is the only way to solve the problem of safeguarding the trees and creating alternative employment.
He stressed that the only way to save forests in the long term is to out-compete the alternative use for forests, noting that despite philanthropy and the good work done by conservation organisations, some 50 per cent of tropical forests have either been lost or degraded.
He said the financial transfer mechanism for the forestry initiative will be vital because in Guyana’s agreement with Norway this has been “the big problem.”
He said the projects under the LCDS also include demarcating indigenous peoples lands (US$4M); US$4M to ensure food security in 155 indigenous villages; education and health.
“We told the World Bank we don’t’ have a problem with the strongest fiduciary safeguards, the strongest environmental or social safeguards, but we need flexibility, and the resources have to be delivered differently. This is payment for services; not the traditional aid mechanism,” he said.
Mr. Rudd also agreed with President Jagdeo that the enormous power of the forestry preservation initiative is that it is practical and immediate but said it is imperative that getting a market-based mechanism for this source of funds is one area of outcome in the next UN climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico in December.
He also stated that more than $3B has been committed for forestry, and with agreement on the rules to allow the funds to flow, the mechanism to decide who gives the funds, and under what circumstances. “This is potentially ready to roll.”
Ms. Wangari Maathai, Founder and Chair, The Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, said activities to protect the forests have to happen at all levels – at the top, policy, political level as demonstrated by President Jagdeo – and at the community level because “you are dealing with a very basic natural resource that provides us with very essential environmental services without which we cannot survive on this planet.”
She advocated firm linkages between the policymakers and the ground, saying there must be a commitment between the government, communities and the universities.
“We have to put things into action as President Jagdeo has done and truly go down to the grassroots,” she said.
The CGI said that investing in forests should not be seen as a luxury for the rich and can be a key tool for economic empowerment.
“Communities that sell forest products harvested in a sustainable way have access to a source of income that can last for generations. Furthermore, communities can receive payment for protecting their forests by receiving certification from UN-REDD (United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation),” it added.
In the session, panelists addressed the role that forests play in sequestering carbon, and the work that needs to be done to empower local populations to earn a living from forests while protecting them at the same time.