COMMENTS from Mr. Erik Solheim, former Minister of Environment and International Development, and current President of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD on Kaieteur News article on the Guyana-Norway partnership.

“I have been grossly misrepresented in your article of 21 March on the Guyana-Norway climate and forest partnership. I have not made any statements along the lines you propose to ‘quote’ in this article. It is simply an untruth, and I expect an apology. Moreover, your article as a whole does not give anything near a fair and accurate representation of the Guyana- Norway partnership.

I would like to underline that reasons for entering into a partnership with Guyana were:

1. The high political commitment Guyana has shown and continues to show on keeping deforestation low and embarking on a low carbon development path.
2. Guyana’s high forest cover and exceptionally low deforestation rate. Twenty per cent of the world’s remaining tropical forests are in such countries. It is crucial to the health of the planet that these countries are incentivized to keep it that way.
3. Guyana’s commitment to use the funds generated through the partnership on low-carbon development, in particular as regards putting the country on a clean and renewable energy trajectory and investing heavily in adaptation to unavoidable climate change.
4. That the pay for performance- partnership could serve as a model for the world, as developing and developed countries alike struggle with the defining challenge of our time – avoiding catastrophic climate change.
This is a first-of-its-kind partnership. That is a challenging position to be in. One of the core merits of this partnership is that we solve the challenges – for real, not on paper – of climate change partnerships, and learn real – not theoretical – lessons, that could be of immense value to the world. I believe Norway and Guyana have made admirable progress since we started our work in 2009. Obviously, much remains to be done. However, I am confident that Norway continues to be committed to the partnership with Guyana and that the two countries will succeed with their joint efforts to keep deforestation low and to create a low carbon development path for Guyana.

I would like to reiterate that this article presents an unbalanced view of the Norway- Guyana partnership and contains some gross misrepresentations.
I would also like to point out that parts of Heidi Bjørkto Bade master’s thesis are misrepresented in this article. But she is fully capable of correcting those misrepresentations herself.
The people of Guyana should be proud of this partnership. Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. Guyana and Norway are trying very seriously to deal with it. That, in itself, is an example to a world which will have to change, urgently, if certain disaster is to be avoided.”