I WONDER how blue Christopher Ram is this Christmas, when almost everyone else is sharing in the season of good cheer.

He must not be feeling too good after the article issued this week by the government of Norway on its climate change agreement with Guyana.

Ram, the so-called columnist and TV host and opposition politician, recently tried again to argue that the historic agreement between the two countries is in jeopardy and that scheduled payments to Guyana may not materialise.

He claimed that that road for President Bharrat Jagdeo “has been proving to be a rather rocky one” and that at the climate change meeting in Cancun, Mexico, the President had lost the respect of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the World Bank.
Contrast Ram’s claims to what Ambassador Hans Brattskar of the Government of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative has to say.
Norway, he says, “remains pleased with the progress being made in our climate and forest collaboration with Guyana and the sustained strength of the partnership between our two countries.”
He adds: “Together, we made it clear from the start that we have the potential to create a replicable model for REDD+. We also made clear that this would take time, and that we would not get everything right the first time. We are proud of our joint efforts to deliver on that vision, and to work as partners to identify solutions to complex problems that will benefit the international community.
“One area where we have made significant progress through our partnership is in understanding the global challenges inherent in the establishment of mechanisms to channel results-based finance.
“The process of identifying an appropriate design for the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) was challenging, and took far longer than it should have. What became clear in that process was that the financing instruments currently available to the World Bank (and other multilateral financing institutions) are probably not ideal for performance-based climate finance purposes.”
It seems clear to me that the rocks on the road for President Jagdeo and Guyana are mainly those being thrown by Ram and his ilk who have been trying to bring down the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
From what I have read and what Mr. Jagdeo reported transpired in Cancun, the President pointed to the same kind of undue delay of more than a year by the World Bank in designing the GRIF.
This has now been restated by Mr. Brattskar and Ram should apologise to President Jagdeo for trying to besmirch his character and the deliberate attempt to mislead the public and place the issues out of context.
Ambassador Brattskar said, “thanks to our combined efforts for over a year, the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund was established as a Financial Intermediary Fund on October 9th, 2010, with the World Bank as trustee. Thirty million USD has been deposited by Norway in that fund.
“In parallel with efforts to establish the GRIF, work started to prepare investing money in projects identified by Guyana. Guyana has developed several project proposals, and others are in the pipeline.
“Progress on the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund should have been quicker. However, lessons were learnt in the process that can be valuable. These lessons could help the multilaterals – and their owners, the international community – as they consider the future of performance-based climate financing. More specifically, we should together seek new ways to combine the effective application of fiduciary, environmental, social and governance safeguards with effective disbursement and strong developing country ownership of spending priorities”, he said.
These are the same points President Jagdeo has been making but these seem to be difficult for Ram and his group to understand.
Dare we hope that Santa can manage to get hold of a primer on `Climate Change for Dunces’ in time to deliver to Ram and his buddies for Christmas?
Please try, for our sakes, Santa.