VICE-PRESIDENT, Bharrat Jagdeo, has received two separate certificates of Special Congressional Recognition from the United States of America.
According posts on his official Facebook page, Jagdeo was presented with a certificate in honour of his “dedication to promoting friendship and economic exchange between the United States of America and the Republic of Guyana.”  This certificate was presented to him during a meeting with U.S. Congressman, Al Green. Congressman Green is currently serving his ninth term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and represents the Congressional District of Texas.
Added to that, the Vice-President met with U.S. Congresswoman, Sheila Jackson Lee, who is serving her eleventh term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 18th Congressional District of Texas. During a meeting with the Congresswoman, Jagdeo was presented with yet another Certificate of Congressional Recognition; this time, it was in honour of his commitment to the environment, sustainable development, and green energy.

Congresswoman Jackson Lee hailed Jagdeo’s efforts as being ‘praiseworthy’ and “most deserving of the respect, admiration and commendation of the United States Congress.” This is not the first time the Vice-President has been honoured for his fight to sustain the environment and combat climate change. As a matter of fact, in 2010, a year before his presidency ended, Jagdeo was awarded the ‘Champion of the Earth Award’ by the United Nations (UN) Environmental Programme (UNEP).
The former Head of State received the prestigious award for his outstanding international leadership on combating climate change and his pioneering model on low carbon economic development. At that time, in presenting the prestigious award, the then UN Under-Secretary-General and Environmental Programme Executive Director, Achim Steiner, stated: “President Jagdeo is a powerful advocate of the need to conserve and more intelligently manage the planet’s natural and nature-based assets. He has recognised more than most the multiple Green Economy benefits of forests in terms of combating climate change, (and) also in terms of development, employment, improved water supplies and the conservation of biodiversity.”

According to the UNEP, the award is given to “people and organisations truly distinguished when it comes to making a real difference in protecting the planet earth…UNEP’s Champions of the Earth Awards honours the ‘best and brightest’ as they strive to take action for our planet through their visionary thinking, unwavering dedication and committed action towards the sustainable use of the planet’s resources for global green growth.”
Vice-President Jagdeo’s 2010 recognition stemmed from his pioneering and comprehensive policies on sustainable economic growth through Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). The strategy is premised on the concept of avoided deforestation, which allows Guyana’s 15 million hectares of rainforest to serve as a carbon sink, a process that is critical to combating global climate change. Deforestation accounts for about 20 per cent of human-generated greenhouse emissions.
To support the LCDS, the Governments of Guyana and Norway had agreed on a ground-breaking model where Norway will pay US$250 million towards Guyana’s forest climate services between 2010 and 2015. This is the second largest deal of its kind in the world.
Moreover, in 2008, Jagdeo was named ‘Hero of the Environment’ by TIME Magazine.

CONTINUING THE FIGHT
More than a decade after he was named Champion of the Earth, Jagdeo is still lending his voice and efforts to combating climate change.
Now that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has returned to office, the Dr. Irfaan Ali-led government has pledged its commitment to proceeding with phase two of the LCDS, which will see the materialisation of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project, another ground-breaking initiative conceptualised by Jagdeo, while he was President. The Vice-President is currently leading Guyana’s representation at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, where he recommitted to balancing Guyana’s petroleum wealth with the protection of the environment. Additionally, on Tuesday night, Dr. Jagdeo delivered the feature address at a forum hosted by the Rice University’s Baker Institute Centre for Energy Studies. There, he issued a call for developing countries to do more in the fight against climate change.
He pointed to the fact that in recent times, developed countries have been relying far too much on developing countries to tackle climate change, even though the latter are often without the requisite resources, technological and otherwise, to lead the charge.

“There is a great deal of worry; in fact, stress in the developing world that in spite of all the progress that we are making towards a zero-emissions future, that the issues that affect us and the help that was promised to us, are not adequate, and the threat is becoming even more existential for us,” Dr. Jagdeo told the forum of experts.
He made specific reference to countries in the Caribbean and the Pacific which remain vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters such as hurricanes, which have the potential to decimate approximately 50 years of a country’s accumulated wealth. This is compounded by the fact that many of developing countries are fiscally stressed and burdened by debt. “Many of these developing countries have no capability for equal burden-sharing and so, the justice, the fairness of this, has also eroded over time. And these countries, historically, were not the contributors to the current concentration of greenhouse gases. Yet, they suffer the most from it,” Jagdeo posited. He said pointedly: “If the developed world does not commit to achieving these targets, then many of these countries will leave, as they enter the negotiations, skeptical as ever that enough is not being done.” (Rehana Ahamad)