–at upcoming G20 Summit, VP Jagdeo says
GUYANA intends to lead frank discussions to mobilise funds to continue conservation efforts of tropical forest in developing states at the upcoming G20 Summit in Brazil that will be held later this year.
This is according to the country’s Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who, while responding to questions posed by the Guyana Chronicle at a recent news conference stated that there are “artificial hurdles” that have been placed in the pathway of developing states to access financing.
“We are basically going to talk a bit more about how we navigated a very complex international environment that is still not sympathetic to countries that have this valuable resource that makes a big impact globally on climate issues, but can’t get any help for [their] tropical forest,” Dr. Jagdeo said.
Jagdeo lamented that there is simply not enough attention being paid to tropical forests and their role in sequestering harmful greenhouse gases.
The G20, or Group of 20, is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU).
When the summit is held in Rio de Janeiro in November, Guyana intends to further lobby for climate financing to support the conservation efforts for forested countries.
“There is a clear recognition that deforestation and forest degradation around the world is a major contributor to climate change, maybe about 16 per cent of the green house gases come from the deforestation and degradation and there is no net zero without addressing this, yet there is no attention being paid to it,” he bemoaned.
According to Dr. Jagdeo, the plan is to level the ‘playing field’.
“Either you have more public money to address this very important mitigation option, or use-based market-based mechanism.”
Guyana has used the market-based mechanism; however, there are many other developing states that may not be able to access this due to the complex land tenure systems in those countries.
According to Dr. Jagdeo, there will be a ‘menu’ sort of approach as to how forested counties will mobilise funds to continue conservation efforts for tropical forest.
Guyana for decades have been lobbying for a structured mechanism to earn monies for tropical forest and while the country has crafted its own success, it is frustrating for many other states.
Through its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCD’S) Guyana has set out a model to balance economic development alongside conserving the country’s forests and biodiversity, while being compensated for same.
This approach has enabled the country to conclude transactions of almost US$1 billion in payments for the climate services provided by Guyana’s forests, of which US$227 million stemmed from the bilateral deal with the Government of Norway, and an additional US$750 million from the sale of ART-TREES credits made in 2023.
For those who may not know, the voluntary carbon market gives companies, non-profit organisation, governments, and individuals the opportunity to buy and sell carbon offset credits. A carbon offset is an instrument that represents the reduction of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases or emissions.
