GUYANA’S low-carbon development has caught the attention of several important players on the international stage. It is a strategy that is geared towards meeting the developmental aspirations of the Guyanese people while at the same time ensuring that such developments are done in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.

It is a model that Guyana is seeking to share with the rest of the world, especially those who are endowed with the same configuration of resources, both natural and ecological. In developing such partnerships, Guyana and Norway in 2009 entered into a partnership aimed at creating a model for economic incentives which would allow for a situation in which our forests would be ‘worth more alive than dead.’

For the period 2009 to 2015, Guyana earned $US212M in payments to be invested in the country’s low carbon development strategy. Among the several benefits that accrued from that partnership were job creation, the titling of Amerindian villages, support for business ventures, and the rehabilitation of the Cuna canal, among others.

Regrettably, a significant part of the money was not utilised because of the decision taken by the previous APNU+AFC administration not to proceed with the Amaila Falls project which by now would have become a reality and in the process lessen the country’s dependence on fossil fuel. Guyanese would have benefited not only from cleaner energy, but cheaper energy as well. This would have greatly enhanced our economic competitiveness and a better standard of living for the Guyanese people.

We have lost out a great deal due to the shortsightedness of the previous Granger administration, but there is not much to be gained from belabouring that point, except to learn from such bad experiences which have turned out to be so costly to the Guyanese people. The country would have been better positioned to meet the goals set in terms of a low-development trajectory. Thankfully, the new PPP/C administration is once again on track and several new initiatives are being taken to build solar power capacity in Linden, Essequibo and Lethem, among other areas.

Guyana already is recognised globally as a country that has been a significant contributor to the forest conservation and preservation of biodiversity. The country has a forest cover of 85 per cent and its deforestation rate is among the lowest in the world with less than one per cent. As we are aware, the country is part of the Guiana Shield, one of the most pristine rainforests in the world.

It stores about 18 per cent of the world’s tropical forest carbon and 20 per cent of the world’s freshwater. Guyana alone stores about 19.5 billion tonnes of carbon in its forests. We are also blessed with high levels of biological diversity. We have four percent of known animal species and 2.4 per cent of plant species.

These are mere statistics, but they provides us as a nation with a valuable resource which, when combined with our other resources, including our rich agricultural and mineral riches, has put us in a favourable position to take advantage of a growing market demand for tropical products which, when combined with our oil-and-gas potential could catapult us from an underdeveloped to rich-nation status.

President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali is currently in Glasgow, Scotland, where he will share with the world Guyana’s model of the low carbon development strategy, which is currently being revised to take into account the country’s changing economic landscape, especially in view of our emerging oil-and-gas economy.

President Ali will no doubt join with other world leaders to call for a reduction of carbon-emission levels that are realistic and fair, taking into consideration the country’s stage of readiness to transition fully to the use of alternative energy forms. Despite some significant progress made in terms of solar energy, it is a fact that our dependence on power is largely fossil-fuel based.

This is likely to remain so for quite some time, especially in light of the scrapping of the Amaila Falls hydro-project by the APNU-AFC administration.