Dear Editor,
I am a Peruvian graduate student specializing in environmental science. (I am writing to you from Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, where I am currently doing research).
Over the past year I have been looking at low-carbon strategies South American governments have been advocating. I have since seen that Guyana has taken a more advanced step by actually developing a Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) which is attracting attention in many of the Latin American countries.
On June 16, I had the opportunity to attend the main session of the Americas Symposium on Energy and Climate in Lima and was privileged to hear the presentation by your country’s representative at the forum on the LCDS. That articulate presentation was made by your country’s Ambassador to Venezuela, Dr Odeen Ishmael.
His speech received much attention and attracted wide discussion and there was some reportage in our media. I think it was significant that Ambassador Ishmael was there since he is well known in diplomatic, political and academic circles in Latin America through his past activities at the OAS; also, his writings on South American issues are widely published in both English and Spanish in regional newspapers and online publications. Thus, he was probably the best messenger the Guyana government could have sent to this forum in Peru.
It is important that the LCDS should acquire wide understanding and support in South America – after all, Guyana is a member of UNASUR. Therefore, I suggest that information in Spanish should be posted on the LCDS website which my colleagues and I check regularly. So far, the only piece of available information in Spanish is Ambassador Ishmael’s speech in Lima, the text of which I found on the Guyana News and Information site at Guyana.org. I am a bit surprised that this is not yet posted on the official LCDS site, but I do hope this will be done soon, so that more Latin Americans can acquire information of this innovative strategy promoted by your country.
Yours faithfully,
Isabella Sanchez
