GUYANA is going green. That is something repeatedly said in the country as it strives towards greater development, and it is really becoming an irrefutable fact.

If you live in Guyana, green development is not a new topic. It is literally everywhere. But really, what is green development?

Green development involves the balancing of sustainable development with economic development, which allows for the sustainable use of natural resources to advance development.

But development itself is a multi-faceted term. For years, the accepted definition of development is what is now termed ‘economic development’. This type of development is measured by indicators such as a nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)- which is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a period of time, or its Human Development Index (HDI)- which encompasses per capita income, health and education. And perhaps the route towards achieving this type of development relied primarily on industrialisation.

At a recent presentation by Director of the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST), Dr. Suresh Narine, he called this approach to development “monotonic” and questioned where exactly has this type of development brought the world.

Well, the world is in a state where it is adversely affected by global warming because its green resources have been replaced by grey, industrial structures. The earth is in a place where it breathes heavily.

Guyana, in this context, is only a developing nation. True development is yet to reach the shores of this small nation which relies extensively on its agrarian and mining economy. At the same time, however, Guyana finds itself home to an environment which is in a pristine state and can breathe easily. So is this development, really development?

It is at this juncture that the concept of green development shows its brilliance.

It’s not green in the sense of physical appearances (though, that is happening as well) but green in the sense of marrying sustainable use of the natural patrimony to economic development. And Dr. Narine believes that Guyana can lead the narrative of modern development- and that is by really achieving green development.

The vision of President David Granger is to transform Guyana into a Green state, built upon the green economy. This involves the transformation of all sectors- from agriculture to manufacturing- into sectors that are sustainably managed. And sustainably managed sectors are ones which have environmental responsiveness, resource efficiency, and community and cultural sensitivity. It really is more than just using solar energy in place of ‘brown-powered’ (fuel-powered) electricity.

But, it must be acknowledged that green development is something ambitious also-very ambitious. And the pursuit of this will require astute leadership because tough decisions will be taken and it may sometimes seem as though the pursuit of (economic) development is being abandoned or at the very least, brushed aside.

Now, Dr. Narine’s remarks were made at the inaugural Green Guyana Expo and International Small Business Expo held recently. This was a grand forum that sought to illustrate what exactly green development advances and how Guyana’s transformation into in a Green State is envisioned.

The talk of the emerging petroleum sector was unavoidable. And in truth, the talk of Guyana’s prospects because of this oil is unavoidable. But what is important is that Guyana intends on using the revenues from this sector to fund green development and the transformation into a green state.

Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Leo Heileman, was one who lauded Guyana’s ambition to use oil revenues to facilitate its transformation into the green state.

He said: “Guyana has a unique opportunity. If managed correctly, oil revenues can relieve constraints to economic growth, boost social development and safeguard environment assets of the future.”

He, however, reaffirmed that this plan is not a guaranteed one but should it be guided by sound fiscal and monetary policies, benefits will reach the entire population. Heileman also posited: “This is the direction the world needs to take in order to have a planet that is safe for all of us in the future.”

With this in mind, and through the forum, it could easily be garnered that Guyana’s attempts to go green is very audacious, but if done right, this could concretely establish Guyana as a global leader.