Hailing the Paris Agreement on climate change as the “most ambitious” international environmental pact in modern history, President David Granger yesterday said Guyana will play its part by bringing two million hectares of forest under conservation, among other steps.
Aside from the increased acreage under conservation, the planned Emissions Reduction Programme (ERP) will also see the encouraging of more efficient mining and logging activities to aid in the fight against global warming, Granger said.
The pledges were among several made by the Head of State as he joined other world leaders in inking the historic Paris Agreement in New York.
The Paris Agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
The agreement was approved by the 196 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris on December 12 last year. The deal also requires rich nations to maintain a US$100 billion a year funding pledge beyond 2020, providing greater financial security to developing nations to build their defences to extreme weather.
In the short term, up to 2020, Granger told the signing ceremony yesterday that Guyana will improve timber monitoring and maintain a high level of timber legality and increase value-added activities in the forestry sector so as to augment carbon storage in long-use wood products.
Further, the country will intensify the sustainable management of the indigenous communities, which own and manage 14% of the national territory, he said.
Granger also pledged that Guyana will implement Reduced Impact Logging (RIL). He also committed to investing in solar power, wind power and hydropower to transition more rapidly to renewable sources of energy and reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
Reuters reported that the United Nations said 175 states took the first step of signing the deal yesterday, the biggest day one endorsement of a global agreement. Of those, 15 states also formally notified the UN that they had ratified the deal. Many countries still need a parliamentary vote to formally approve the agreement. The deal will enter into force only when ratified by at least 55 nations representing 55 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
Yesterday, China and the United States, the world’s top producers of greenhouse gas emissions, pledged to formally ratify the Paris Agreement by the end of the year, raising the prospects of it being enforced much faster than anticipated, Reuters reported. China and the United States together account for 38 percent of global emissions.
‘No effort spared’
Granger was among a number of world leaders signing the deal and in his remarks, released by the Ministry of the Presidency, he said Guyana has signed the Agreement on account of its recognition of the need for resolute action to combat this challenge. He pledged to ensure that Guyana will ratify the deal this year.
“Guyana, through the pursuit of a Green Economy, will spare no effort to contribute to both a sustainable future and to an effective global response to climate change,” Granger said. He asserted that Guyana is a net carbon sink and its forests sequester more carbon than the country’s human activities generate.
Guyana, with the world’s second highest percentage of rainforest cover -85% – commands important carbon stocks, he said, while adding that Guyana, nevertheless, is fully committed to contributing to limiting the rise in global temperature to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The president said that Guyana intends to implement initiatives in the forest and renewable energy sectors, including through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) Plus programme. “We will move closer towards a 100% renewable power supply by 2025, conditional on appropriate support and adequate resources,” he said.
According to Granger, Guyana’s proposed commitments, through avoided emissions, can contribute the equivalent of up to 48.7 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide to the global mitigation effort.
He said Guyana is prepared to sustainably manage conserve and protect the national patrimony and place its ecological resources at the service of humanity.
Granger acknowledged the leadership of the government of France, the stewardship of the UN Secretary General as well as the partnerships forged by the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and the efforts of others who contributed to the consummation of this agreement.
“The Paris Agreement is the most ambitious international environmental agreement in modern history. The Agreement presents a historic opportunity for the global community to respond to the challenge of climate change in an appropriate manner,” Granger said.
