Nokta urges opposition to ‘let better sense prevail’
ADVISOR to the President and Head of the Office of Climate Change, Mr.  Shyam Nokta, has slammed the proposed cuts by the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) projects at a sum of $18B in the 2012 budget. “I think from the perspective as Head of the Climate Change Unit and Advisor on Climate Change, this is very disturbing… when we started, we had broad based and maybe one of the most extensive national consultations and received widespread national support and also international support which led to the agreement with Norway. We have been implementing this agreement and to date has earned US$70M to support the LCDS,” Nokta told the Chronicle in an invited comment.
“This move by APNU to cut the LCDS is worrying and is cause for concern. It begs the question, ‘where is the rationality behind this, especially when you look at what the LCDS projects are designed to do’…,” Nokta posited.
He alluded to support to be given to the Amaila Falls hydro project and also some other projects identified for support like the Amerindian development fund, providing support to small and micro enterprise development “A range of LCDS projects are going to be affected by this very surprising move by the opposition…and for it to receive this kind of drastic response, is indeed cause for concern. We have to look and hope that good sense prevails since this will have a significant impact on our people,” Nokta said.