New Ambassador of Switzer-land to Guyana, Markus-Alexander Antonietti, has hailed the Guyana/Norway forest agreement as a model to be emulated worldwide.
According to the Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA), Ambassador Antonietti on Wednesday presented his letters of Credence to President Bharrat Jagdeo at the Office of the President, where he said climate change is his top priority during his tenure as ambassador to Guyana.
“The low carbon scheme which you are doing together with Norway is one of the leading examples now in the world,” Ambassador Antonietti stated.
He spoke of his eagerness to have more information after hearing of Guyana’s achievements at reaching the historic forest deal with Norway. As a result, a discussion was held with his Norwegian colleague in Caracas who confirmed the details and merits, GINA said.
According to GINA, Switzerland has been greatly affected by climate change and their tourism markets that depend on the winter season have suffered because of strange weather patterns. These weather patterns have also seen the country battle flooding, Ambassador Antonietti was quoted as saying. He noted, “We realised that small countries of the north are as touched as other countries in other parts of the world. It is not something which just stops at the border, but it is really something that is having an impact on the whole of the world directly or indirectly,” he said.
Letters of credence were also presented to President Jagdeo by French Ambassa-dor to Guyana Joel Godeau, and Swedish Ambassador to Guyana Claes Hammer, who also said climate change is a priority.
Hammer, when asked about the cooperation pros-pects, noted the need to regain momentum in the climate change negotiations and the efforts to convince the heavy polluters to cut their emission levels steeply.
Ambassador Hammer, in his address, stated “We already have good contracts and we want to see how we can coordinate our decisions and get the negotiations in climate change moving again and hope that the big courtiers who are hesitating, United States and China, would be able to take some new steps.”
Meanwhile, Ambassador Godeau informed that environmental protection will be among his priorities in deepening the relationship between Guyana and French Guiana.
