The Office of Climate Change, Office of the President, yesterday received a delegation from the Government of the United Kingdom as part of ongoing bilateral engagements on climate change.
The delegation, led by His Excellency Andrew Ayre, British High Commissioner, also included Mr. Ian Bolton, Climate Change and Energy Desk Officer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Mr. Matt Nottingham, Political Officer at the British High Commission in Port of Spain.
The delegation met with Presidential Adviser and Head of the Office of Climate Change, Mr Shyam Nokta
The visit was geared towards gaining a better understanding of how the UK and Guyana can work more closely and establish areas for greater cooperation on climate change. Among the areas discussed were progress on Guyana’s climate initiatives, the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), and the Interim REDD+ mechanism being implemented through the Guyana-Norway partnership.
Guyana’s LCDS has won international acclaim as a workable model for forested developing countries of the world to achieve national development goals through sustainable exploitation of natural resources.
Guyana has been leading the way through a landmark agreement with the Kingdom of Norway, which will see this country receiving payments for avoided deforestation and other climate change related forest services.
The partnership represents the world’s second largest Interim REDD+ scheme and the first national-scale effort, with Guyana being one of a few countries in the world that is being paid for the climate services its forests provide.