From the start of the international debate on the issue of climate change at least two sets of views have been proffered. There were those who posited that human activity continues to have a negative impact on the world’s climate and that those activities are, in fact, the major contributors to the phenomena of climate change and global warming. The skeptics have simply rejected the notion of climate change altogether.
The balance, in recent years, has shifted dramatically. There is no longer any serious doubt that climate change and its concomitant global warming are real and that these issues should be addressed as a matter of the utmost urgency at both the national and international levels.
The shift in the weight of the respective arguments has been occasioned by the emergence of ever increasing scientific and other evidence that climate change is a reality and that it has serious implications for the quality of life and, almost certainly, for human existence. Consequently, we are witnessing the emergence of a growing global agenda aimed at addressing the issues of climate change and global warming at both the national and international levels.
Since climate change is likely to impact differently on countries there is need for a national response based on an understanding of the Guyana reality. Guyana cannot respond to the phenomena of climate change and global warming in a vacuum. The national response has to proceed in the context of extant international realities and must seek to focus on a diplomatic strategy that makes the international environment conducive to the promotion of the national interest.
Climate Change and Global Warming: The Conceptual Framework
“Climate change refers to the variations in the earth’s climate over time. It describes changes in variability or average state of the atmosphere over time scales ranging from decades to millions of years”.
Climate change can be caused by processes that are internal to the earth as well as external forces (eg, variations in sunlight intensity) .Climate change can also be anthropogenic in nature, that is, it can result from acts by humans that contribute to changes in the environment. It is the anthropogenic causes of climate change that are currently the burden of international concern since there is an emerging consensus that these are the greatest contributors to climate and global warming.
The anthropogenic argument states that the world is experiencing significant change in climate and that this is occurring because humans, in their quest for development, have neglected to embrace the virtue of sustainability in their use of world’s resources. It is further argued that human development has been dichotomous insofar as, on the one hand, it has realized industrial and other forms of development, but, on the other, it has resulted in the emission of greenhouse gases that have contributed to a rise in global temperatures.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that the average surface temperature has increased by about 0.6 degrees centigrade. The IPCC also stated that the 1990s was, possibly, the warmest decade ever and that 1998 was the warmest year. They noted as well, that the snow cover and ice extent have decreased and that sea level has risen by 10 to 20 cm.(4 to 8 inches).
Governance and Climate Change in Guyana
Politics plays an important role in most issues in the Guyanese society. Many of the decisions that are necessary in the context of climate change require interventions at the political level, Accordingly, they have to do with, among other things, issues of governance. Addressing the environment in general and climate change in particular provides scope the development of a system of governance that is both consensual and inclusive.
Dealing with the challenges posed by climate change and global warming demands that decisions be made in the context of sustainable development so that it is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
Realizing sustainable development in Guyana necessitates the creation of the political will to forge a consensus and develop an appropriate strategy for Guyana. Achieving such a consensus will require the development of a new political culture that transcends partisan political interests and is premised on an understanding of the challenges to be surmounted.
The formulation and implementation of a successful plan demands constructive and consistent national leadership. Robert J. Berg in his article “Implications for Governance Arising from Climate Change” makes the pertinent observation that “the dynamics of creating sustainable societies flies in the face of the normal short term political calculus wherein actions are valued only if incumbents receive the political benefit.”
What is required is an approach that allows political leaders to operate in the interest of the long term national good while simultaneously serving their constituency interests and maintaining constituency support. Put differently, if properly handled the issue of climate change has the potential to transcend the old tit for tat political culture that has prevailed in Guyana and to replace it with one that makes the interests of the people and the development of Guyana the primary focus of the political system.
Additionally, climate change needs to be treated as a security and development issue on par with that of the country’s territorial controversy with Venezuela and its border dispute with Suriname. Placing this level of importance on the issue will augur well for it to be treated as one that transcends partisan politics. It will open new vistas for consensus, long term planning and the development of the institutional capacity necessary for addressing the challenges posed by climate change.
Institutional and Capacity Building
Having created the relevant consensual framework it is critical that the policy formulating institution is multi-disciplinary, multi agency and profession representative and that it includes all stakeholders including government, civil society, business and political parties. This has to be complemented by a bureaucracy that is competent and capable of implementing a comprehensive climate change plan.
Developing such a bureaucracy will require institutional capacity building to create the human resources and the institutional structures that are required to implement a comprehensive climate change plan. The allocation of scholarships should therefore take into consideration the need to train persons to acquire the technical, scientific, and other skills that are required to confront and surmount the challenges posed by climate change and to place Guyana on the road to sustainable development.
The efficaciousness of an action plan is dependent on the society forging a consensus on the critical issues and approaches to be utilized in the fight against global warming. There is also need for the creation of an environment that is disposed to the promotion of sustainable development as the underpinning philosophy that must guide Guyana’s response to climate change in particular, and development in general.
Plan of Action on Climate Change
A Plan of Action on Climate Change must be comprehensive, developed in the context of sustainable development and determined by the nature of the problems experienced by Guyana. If there are criticisms to be made of the current initiatives to deal with climate change in Guyana, those criticisms repose in the fact that national responses have tended not to take sufficient account of domestic circumstances, a truism that is borne out by uncoordinated response to the floods of recent years. These responses have been piecemeal and have reflected the absence of a comprehensive plan.
The driving force behind Guyana’s Climate Change Plan must not be a response to the programmes and agenda of the inte
rnational community. Guyana’s response must reflect national concerns.
Guyana is essentially a low-lying state which has a coast line that is about 434km and a continental extent of about 724km. Ninety percent of Guyana’s population lives on the coastland. Guyana’s major economic activities are also on the coastland. While the coast is the centre of our economic activities and the home of the vast majority of the population, it is this area that is under immediate and direct threat from the rising seas. Predictions on sea level rise for Guyana are ominous. In 2000 the National Climate Change Adaptation Policy and Implementation Plan for Guyana noted that the “Tide gauge data in Guyana for the period 1951 to 1979 indicated a mean relative sea level rise of 10.2 mm. This is about 5 times the global average and suggests that a mechanism other than sea level rise may be operating on Guyana’s coast”. This being the case, Guyana, therefore, has to become involved in scientific research on the specifix circumstances that have influenced rising sea levels.
Critical to the success of Guyana’s climate change plan is the need for there to be an inventory of the environmental problems that are specific to Guyana and for the formulation and implementation of a scientific research plan that caters to these problems. This scientific data must inform the wider climate change and sustainable development plans.
The available evidence suggests that climate change is expected to impact on many aspects of the life of Guyana, viz, agriculture, hydrology, human settlement, health, infrastructure, water resources, inter alia. Scientific information will have to be garnered to help Guyana to deal in the adaptation process with the use of new lands away from the coast to develop existing and new crops relevant to the new lands that will have to be utilized as Guyana shifts its human settlements to highlands.
The use of new lands will become necessary because Guyana will be compelled to shift its population inland. The climate change plan must have a component that seeks to relocate large sections of the population to the high lands. Government will therefore need to create conditions that are propitious to people and businesses resettling on the high lands.In this regard there is need to create incentives that will encourage relocation.
A heightened sense of public awareness is critical to the overall climate change strategy. Probably the area that cries out most for public education is the area of solid waste disposal. Guyana has a fundamental problem as it relates to the disposal of waste though it lies within our power to address that problem. We can contribute significantly to minimizing the adverse effects of flooding through the creation of a more responsible waste disposal culture. A plan to deal with climate change must include a component that seeks to educate the public on their role in ensuring a litter -free society. What is also important in this regard is the need for the creation of upgraded waste disposal facilities.
Integral to the Climate Change Plan will be a technically sound plan to deal with drainage, irrigation, and sea defences for low-lying coastal areas, which, at least for the time being, remains home to the vast majority of the population and our most fertile lands. Developing a comprehensive climate change plan in the context of sustainable development will require large sums of financial resources. Government will therefore have to be prepared to invest in this venture and to develop an international diplomatic strategy that will procure the required resources to compliment the domestic effort.
Aubrey Norton is the holder of an undergraduate degree in Political Science form the University of Guyana and Masters degree on International Relations from Kent University in the United Kingdom
