Climate change is good business for countries like Guyana but ultimately the developed world must provide the financial support expected of it, President Bharrat Jagdeo reiterated last night.
Addressing a gathering at the opening of the International Conference of “Low Carbon Development and Community Planning”, Jagdeo said that while community planning was good, planning first had to be addressed at the national level. He noted that if the country’s budget could not fund community action, then no progress could be made. According to him, no Caribbean territory could engage in planning without taking into consideration climate change.
In this regard, he noted that financial support from the developed countries was important or else the countries in the region would have to divert resources away from education, health care and other things necessary for social capital to address the issue of climate change.
While noting the importance of the developed countries allocating resources to counteract climate change, Jagdeo also highlighted the importance of internationally binding agreements. “A Low Carbon Development Strategy could only succeed in an international environment where you have binding agreements…[by] all the countries in the world towards achieving a particular outcome”, the President stated to the gathering at the International Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
He, however, was not optimistic that the developed world would change its stance from last year’s disappointing Copenhagen confab at the upcoming summit on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico.
Meanwhile, Jagdeo said that the country would not be agreeing to a “cap on carbon emissions”, since this was not a requirement of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases. He said that what was promised was a lower trajectory in the growth of carbon emissions. He said that because it is not necessary to cap emissions, developing the oil and gas industry is consistent with the model and he opined that fossil fuels would have to help pay for some of the externalities.
“Climate Change is good business for us,” Jagdeo said, while adding that “It is probably the best thing that could have happened to forested countries”. He said that before the impact of deforestation was properly analyzed, developed countries thought they could get away with giving the forested countries philanthropic tokens, which included giving small grants.
The conference is being hosted by the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) and the Caribbean Network for Urban and Land Management (CNULM) under the Edulink project in association with the University of Guyana (UG). This initiative is funded by CIDA.
One of the objectives of the conference is to “define a practical programme of activities aimed at supporting Low Carbon Development by means of various methods, practices and tools available to the planning profession, with specific reference to Guyana’s LCDS.” It is also aimed at “demonstrating the relevance of Professional Planning Practice to the topics of Climate Change and Low Carbon Development. The forum is also aimed at “enabling cross sectoral, bilateral and multi-partnerships among Climate Change and Urban & Land Use Planning Practitioners and Organizations.”
Also addressing the audience last evening were Rawle Edinboro, the Chief Development Planner of the CH&PA, Housing Minister Irfaan Ali and UG Vice Chancellor Professor Lawrence Carrington. Project Manager for the Canada-Guyana Partnership for Community Planning Project (C-GPCP) Michel Frojmovic and Project Director Dr Asad Mohamed also delivered brief remarks.