THE Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) Ltd. will host a special business dinner on Friday that will feature former President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, who will speak on the topic: “A green economy – Opportunities for the Private Sector in Guyana.”
Dr. Jagdeo is eminently qualified to address the subject after more than a decade as a formidable presence on the world’s stage among the pundits and international advocates for international action to avert the worst consequences of climate change. In fact, he was described in 2010 by the Chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, as “one of perhaps half a dozen Heads of Government who truly understand the issue” (the intricacies and consequences of climate change and global warming). This was after he created then implemented in Guyana the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that sets out a replicable model to:
1) Protect Guyana’s 18 million hectares of forests;
2) To address the 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions that result from deforestation and forest degradation; and
3) To re-orient the Guyanese economy onto a long-term path of low deforestation, low carbon emissions and climate resilience.
The GMSA stands on the conviction that our business community needs reminding (and in some cases sensitisation) of their responsibilities to the environment, and of the many opportunities available to establish a whole new industrial sector that will address main stream and downstream business needs associated with Climate Change. Dr. Jagdeo was asked to share his vast storehouse of knowledge gleaned from his considerable experiences on the international stage promoting the efficacy of the LCDS.
For this, he was named the Champion of the Earth by the United Nations in 2010, while they dubbed Guyana the LUNGS OF THE WORLD. He has accumulated numerous other international accolades over the past decade. Among them was the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award he received from the Government of India, and the Pushkin Medal from the Government of Russia. The USA Times Magazine named him one of its “Heroes of the Environment” and he has consistently been appointed to hold global leadership positions in the areas of sustainable development, green growth and climate change.
