AMERINDIAN communities in Guyana are set to receive at least US$112 out of the US$750 million that Guyana stands to receive from the sale of carbon credits to Hess Corporation.
The government’s commitment to allocate the funds to the indigenous communities was announced by Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, in his remarks at the signing of the milestone agreement between Guyana and Hess.

“Fifteen per cent of all proceeds from any sale of carbon credits will go to Amerindian communities. All communities, forested and non-forested, will benefit in an equitable manner,” the Vice-President declared.

He added: “Amerindian communities from this deal alone will get $112 million. This is at a minimum because we anticipate that the market will move. This is crucial for us. I want to thank Hess Corporation for this agreement. It is clearly transformative and moves us closer to the objectives that we were working on.”

In an invited comment, Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai, said that the significant funds essentially mean more development in the Amerindian communities across Guyana.
She noted that at the last National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference in July, several of the Amerindian leaders had outlined a number of areas where investment is needed, and while the government has already been responding to those requests, the additional resources will go a far way in ensuring that the communities can achieve all that they need.

“Our government has ensured from the very beginning, that the indigenous population would be involved and benefitting. I’m sure the Amerindian community is elated. Today, with the signing, it is clear that our consultation with the Amerindian community bore fruit,” Sukhai said.

The purchase of the carbon credit is an important part of Hess Corporation’s commitment to support global efforts to address climate change and for the oil giant to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Guyana has more than 18 million hectares of forests, storing an estimated 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
It was announced that the multi-year agreement with Hess is for 37.5 million REDD+ jurisdictional carbon credits.

These credits will be included in the REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard 2.0 register maintained by ART (Architecture for REDD+ Transactions) and will undergo independent verification.

Guyana is the first to complete the ART process for generating high-integrity, Paris Agreement-aligned carbon credits that will allow the country to access market-based finance to continue to implement forest-stewardship strategies.

The signing of the agreement, on Friday, marked the culmination of a far-reaching vision which was initiated in 2007 by then President, now Vice-President Jagdeo, who had lobbied for financing for climate services. This had led to the creation of the first Low Carbon Development Strategy in 2009.