Guyana’s “pioneering” work in climate planning was recognized at a forum yesterday on the sidelines of the United Nations global summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
Guyana was cited for the development of its low carbon growth strategy and the progress made with the Norway–Guyana Agreement and the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), GINA said. President Bharrat Jagdeo and members of the Guyana delegation attended the side event titled `The Best-Laid Plans: Turning Ideas into Action on Mitigation, Adaptation and Finance’ organized by the World Resources Institute (WRI). Jagdeo was the feature speaker at the event.
GINA reported that the forum was organized to showcase new research WRI has produced on the processes by which countries can develop plans to mitigate emissions, particularly from forests and energy. It also looked at adapting to climate change and creating a platform for government, private sector and civil society actors from developed and developing countries to share perspectives on the requirements of effective planning processes.
President Jagdeo in his address outlined the approach Guyana has taken in working towards establishing a model of how REDD+ can work to address the drivers of deforestation at a national scale while at the same time ensuring key principles of participation, transparency, and accountability are upheld. REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is a central feature of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). Guyana last month reached an historic deal with Norway under which that country will provide US$250M in support over five years for the LCDS.
Yesterday, while negotiators were wrapping up the final stages before the high level segment of the summit begins, President Jagdeo met several other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders and President of the Maldives, Nasheed Mohammed to discuss progress on the negotiations leading into the high level Segment.
At a side event, organized by the Caribbean Climate Change Centre and attended by several regional Prime Ministers including Dean Barrow of Belize, Stephenson King of St. Lucia, Tillman Thomas of Grenada, and CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington and Deputy Secretary General Edward Greene, Jagdeo pointed out that at Copenhagen, CARICOM’s position will be tested. He underlined the need to have a realistic assessment of what is likely to emerge and how as a region CARICOM can encourage a favourable outcome. He pointed out that while the IPCC (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) in its fourth assessment report emphasized a target of 2 degrees Celsius, the current pledges for greenhouse gas emission cuts by Annex 1 countries are far from achieving this, GINA reported.
Referring to financing, the president pointed out that while there is a commendable effort spearheaded by the United Kingdom and France to mobilise fast-track financing of US$10 billion annually, this is proving to be a challenge and is nowhere near the level of financing required.
However, he said, it is a start and should be supported with a view towards ratcheting this up to US$150 billion by 2020 through a variety of funding sources, including public and private financing.