MINISTER of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd, says the mitigation of climate change and improvement of the global environment should be dealt with at the multilateral level with heavier responsibility being placed on G20 economies that largely benefitted from economic globalization.
Climate change is the most critical global environmental problem of our time and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security, and other dimensions. If global warming continues, Guyana’s low-lying coastlands and their entire infrastructure, settlements, and agriculture stand to be devastated by sea-level rise and extreme weather events.
Minister Todd at India’s Raisina Dialogue 2022, which was held from 25-27 April, 2022 in New Delhi, India, stated that small countries and economies such as Guyana, were burdened with many challenges after gaining independence and they were left to catch up with the world, while the world would have moved on, a challenge which these economies had to work to overcome.
With this in mind, Minister Todd stated that he believes that these states should fetch a lighter load as it relates to their shared responsibility as it relates to climate-change strategies.
He said that the G20 countries are the primary beneficiaries of economic globalization and they are the ones who have been responsible for the plight of the global environment.
He noted that the issue affecting the global environment should be dealt with at the multilateral level with those countries who are largely responsible.
Minister Todd highlighted the benefits of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030, stating that the policy seeks to build a platform for the economy of the future, a low-carbon economy, where the country’s world-class forests, biodiversity, water, and marine resources are valued for the vital contribution they make to the health of the planet.
Guyana’s forest in its current state stores about 21.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which, if cut down, would release all of that gas into the atmosphere, causing further harm to the environment.
Over the past few years, Guyana has kept these forests intact, cutting down less than 0.005 per cent of the trees.