WHEN Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo told the COP31 climate summit that “the key to faster progress is finance,” he was summarising nearly two decades of Guyanese experience.
At a high-level event co-hosted by Guyana, Brazil, Norway, the Republic of the Congo and the United Kingdom, Dr Jagdeo put forward a simple but powerful proposition: if the world wants tropical forests protected, it must make them worth more standing than felled. Guyana has already shown that this can be done.
The story began in 2007, when Dr Jagdeo, then President, made an offer many considered audacious: Guyana would keep nearly all of its rainforest intact in exchange for fair international support. That vision became the Low Carbon Development Strategy, secured a landmark partnership with Norway, and has since matured into LCDS 2030.
In 2022, Guyana became the first country to receive carbon credits for forest protection on a nationwide basis, and Hess, now part of Chevron, committed to buying at least US$750 million in credits over a decade. Forest carbon sales have since earned the country roughly US$353 million, and the programme is expected to bring in more than US$100 million this year alone, with over 30 airlines now among the buyers.
What makes the Guyana model compelling is not only the money but the results, and how the benefits are shared. With about 85 per cent of the country under forest, storing an estimated 19.5 gigatonnes of carbon, Guyana has held deforestation to roughly 0.04 per cent, one of the lowest rates on earth.
Twenty per cent of carbon credit revenue now flows directly to 252 Indigenous villages, which decide for themselves how to spend it. Over four years, those communities have financed more than 3,000 local projects in agriculture, education, small business and village infrastructure. This is climate action that places resources in the hands of the forests’ traditional stewards.
Dr Jagdeo’s four proposals for global action deserve serious attention: stronger political leadership, greater certainty in carbon markets, sustained international partnerships and a broader menu of financing tools.
His call for heads of government to take personal ownership of the issue, as President Lula has done in Brazil, is well placed. Forest finance will not move at the required pace if it is left to technical negotiators alone.
His most pointed message concerned reliability. Some governments, notably in Europe, have delayed implementation of the aviation sector’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme (CORSIA), the very framework that allows airlines to buy credits such as Guyana’s.
As Dr Jagdeo rightly argued, forest countries cannot be asked to make long-term commitments while the international rules they depend upon remain uncertain. Shifting goalposts discourage precisely the ambition the world claims to want.
Guyana is not asking for charity. It is asking the world to pay a fair price for a service that benefits every nation: a stable climate, clean air and rich biodiversity.
Through its co-chairmanship, with the United Kingdom, of the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership, and its support for Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility and innovative debt arrangements, Guyana is helping to build the architecture other forest nations will need.
With the 2030 deadline to halt and reverse global forest loss fast approaching, the choice is clear. Guyana has proven that conservation and development can advance together. The task now is for the international community to stay the course; honour its commitments and pay for the forests it says it values.
