Attempts by this newspaper yesterday to get an update from the OCC were futile as the number provided was met with a pre-recorded message stating ‘your party is unavailable’. A direct line to Head of the OCC, Shyam Nokta was met with the message that the number was temporarily disconnected. The OCC is located within the Office of the President (OP) and when OP Press Liaison Officer, Kwame McCoy was contacted, he stated that he was aware of the updated LCDS’ promised release but would have to check for the date and get back to this newspaper.
In a press release published in this newspaper on November 16, the OCC said that the upgraded LCDS document which will integrate views from the recently held national consultation and the agreement signed between Guyana and Norway would be released within two weeks. The release had noted that Norway has “committed to paying Guyana for forest climate services to the value of up to a quarter of a billion (US) dollars by 2015.”
The release had said that the new LCDS document would be released before the Copenhagen meeting of the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) starting on Monday where it is expected to receive considerable international attention. It had stated that the updated LCDS will show how the agreement is the start of a phased approach to integrate Guyana’s climate services into the global economy where ultimately a value is placed on Guyana’s forests that make them more economically valuable alive than dead. The LCDS will outline how this could happen over the next decade and how Norway’s payments will catalyse the start of that process.
