WITH its prototype Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), Guyana is in the forefront of the international climate change debate and the advocacy initiated by former President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, is continuing unabated.

According to Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, Guyana is continuing its advocacy at the regional and international levels on climate change as was seen most recently when Prime Minister Samuel Hinds represented the country at the recent CARICOM meeting of climate change negotiators and climate change Ministers in Trinidad and Tobago.
Dr. Luncheon said Guyana’s climate change road map for the rest of the year will include participation in a meeting in June in Bonn, Germany, where the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations will continue to further discuss the elements of the design of a new agreement in 2015.
Guyana expects to contribute to declarations on a Regional position on climate change during a meeting in July of the CARICOM Heads of Government.

In July also Guyana will participate in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) international conference on climate change and then in September at a New York Summit on climate change to be convened by the United Nations (UN) Secretary General.

Dr. Luncheon said the New York summit will be preceded by the Annual General Assembly of the UN where politicians are expected to be bold and ambitious and innovative in the areas of climate change mitigation, adaptation and financing.

A similar activity in October will precede a definitive activity in December in Lima, Peru where all the members of the convention on climate change will gather.

He said government feels that a reasonable expectation of the outcome of the meeting in December would be that details of the new climate change agreement intended for completion in 2015 would be unveiled.

Dr. Luncheon said the final approach is to the 2015 UN summit in Paris to negotiate the new international agreement.

He stressed that countries and regional blocks are at the moment consolidating their respective positions on climate change and Guyana and CARICOM are no exceptions.

(By Clifford Stanley)