— VP Jagdeo tells India Summit

WITH Guyana demonstrating the importance that should be placed on forest conservation, Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jadgeo emphasised that those efforts must be well-compensated as part of the push to protect the earth from climate change.

Dr Jadgeo said this as he delivered the keynote address on Visionary Leadership for Mainstreaming Sustainable Development and Climate Resilience at the inaugural session of the World Sustainable Development Summit 2023 held in New Delhi, India on Wednesday.

He, warned that countries must avoid the extremes that often characterise global debate. According to him, nature should be preserved regardless of its impact on human beings but countries must be allowed to exploit their natural resources.

“I believe in the search for solutions somewhere in between those two extremes, there lies a lot of the solutions and answers that we are looking for,” Jadgeo said.

As such, he spent much of his presentation explaining how incentives can be provided to help countries sustainably develop their natural resources, particularly forests. This is important since forests are needed to help slow the ongoing climate crisis that causes intensified disasters like rising sea-levels and flooding.

The Vice-President underscored that achieving 1.5-degree Celsius goal for global warming will never be achieved without bringing the forest as part of the mitigation solution. This is so, he said, because deforestation alone would cause about 15 to 18 per cent of global greenhouse gases with the largest emissions coming from the United States of America, China, India and Russia.

“Clearly, it’s important that we find the solution to this nature-based problem of deforestation. The forest can remove nearly 10 gigatons of (carbon dioxide) equivalent every year by 2050. It could provide more than 25 per cent of the solution to keep us on a 1.5 trajectory by 2030.

“So, clearly, the case has been made that forests are important both for climate solutions leaving out even its impact on their biodiversity and ecosystem preservation.” he said.

Despite their importance, Dr Jadgeo stressed that until now, forests are not reflected in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change discussions “in a manner that will be advantageous” to those countries that have forests to preserve.

Further, the Vice President lamented the world still believes that the forest can be preserved by philanthropy, evidenced by the declaration that many countries signed on to end deforestation.

“The world believes that this could be achieved cheap (but) I believe you have the outcompete alternate use of the forests because forests are living beings, and people rely on them for livelihood.

“Countries rely on them for development, and the only way you can preserve them, in the long run, is to outcompete the alternate use of these forests. That means you have to create a system of incentives to do so,” the Vice-President explained.

GUYANA’S LCDS
And according to him, Guyana already has a model that demonstrates how this can be done. That model is the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), a plan that was first implemented in 2009 when the Vice-President was Guyana’s President.

Now, the Irfaan Ali-led administrated updated and expanded the plan, allowing Guyana to sustainably leverage its natural resources for national development. It also allows for Guyana to receive payments to keep protecting its forests through the sale of carbon credits.

Last December, the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions announced the issuance of 33.47 million TREES credit to Guyana for the five-year period from 2016 to 2020.

The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) is a global initiative that seeks to certify the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), as well as restore forests and protect intact forests.

The Government of Guyana entered into an agreement with the Hess Corporation for the sale of carbon credits for a minimum of US$750 million between 2022 and 2032. The first payment from the Hess Corporation to Guyana for the sale of carbon credits has been made.

Initial receipts from the one carbon credit agreement completed to date will total US$150 million by the end of 2023 – with US$112.5 million already received and a further US$37.5 million to come in July 2023.

AMERINDIAN DEVELOPMENT
Further, this scheme resulted in the payment of US$22.5 million to Amerindian communities made from the first payment.

Since the government has committed 15 per cent of all carbon credit sales to Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples, he said continuous allocations to Amerindians will be made.

Those sums will be transferred to over 200 villages and communities for investment in village priorities, as outlined in village plans put together by villages themselves.

Ensuring a fair and equitable way to share these revenues across villages and communities was the topic of conversations between the National Toshaos’ Council and the government. Those discussions addressed considerations to achieve fairness across several factors were examined including size, tenure type, and population.

As a result of those conversations, a structure of equitable benefits sharing was determined as the best way forward to effectively reflect the development needs of villages with village population being the main determinant.

Beyond community development, as set out in the LCDS 2030 (Chapter Two), revenues from the sale of carbon credits will be invested through a combination of (i) national and multi-community projects and programmes; (ii) a dedicated 15 per cent of all revenues for investment in village plans, put together through village-led processes as set out in the LCDS 2030 (Chapter Two).

Dr. Jagdeo explained that the remaining monies will be used mainly to deal with climate adaptation and issues such as water management that impact the lives of Guyanese.

Overall, the Vice President believes that using those resources to tackle national development issues will help to better citizen’s lives. As such, he argued that more countries and global bodies should be supporting Guyana’s LCDS and similar plans.