President David Granger yesterday lamented that Guyana was not keeping up with small states on generation of green energy and environmental matters.
According to the Ministry of the Presidency, he was speaking to heads of agencies in the natural resources sector.
Granger said according to the Ministry of the Presidency “Guyana is not keeping abreast with other States in terms of the mastering of its environment. It seems to me that several other States, even the smaller States had made a lot more progress in their approaches to the environment, particularly in energy generation and this has been a major problem for Guyana. Guyana is the best endowed Caribbean state in terms of potential and other countries are making headway in solar, wind energy generation. They are way ahead of Guyana”.
The Ministry of the Presidency press release yesterday did not refer to any specific state but Granger recently returned from an energy conference in the US where it was revealed that small Caribbean states such as St Kitts had proceeded significantly with clean forms of energy. Thermal energy has been a key focus of St Kitts and several other countries in the Caribbean.
A year in office, the Granger administration has come under pressure to show what it has achieved in one of its priority areas: green energy. It has said that it will be replacing the Jagdeo administration’s Low Carbon Development Strategy with a Green Development Plan but there is yet to be any specific initiative. All it has said is that Bartica will be transformed into a green town and government buildings will be encouraged to convert to clean energy.
Aside from this there are deliberations on a wind farm project while plans for hydropower remain up in the air as a final feasibility study is still to be done on the Amaila Falls hydropower project.
Yesterday’s statement said that Granger met with the Heads of the various agencies under the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of the Presidency and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to assess Guyana’s preparedness for the transition to a ‘green’ economy.
The meeting, which was held at the Ministry of the Presidency, also provided those attending with an opportunity to discuss government’s ‘green’ development agenda and the involvement of these agencies in advancing that agenda towards the eventual goal of a national ‘Green Development Plan for Guyana.’
Those in attendance included Minister of State, Joseph Harmon; Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman; Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Joslyn McKenzie; Head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Indarjit Ramdass; Head of the Guyana Energy Agency, Dr. Mahender Sharma; Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, Trevor Benn; Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission, James Singh; Head of the Office of Climate Change, Janelle Christian; Chief Executive Officer of the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, Dane Gobin and Head of the Wildlife Management Authority, Alona Sankar.
In addressing the representatives of the various agencies, President Granger said that the environment plays a critical role in the development of any country and it is therefore necessary that Guyana takes steps to ensure that it does not lag behind its counterparts.
The release said that Heads were given the opportunity to explain the work and mandate of their respective organisations and outline their challenges.
The release said that the President committed to meeting again with the invited agencies and departments for the formulation of a draft Green Development Plan. The meetings will be held during the month of June 2016.
Gobin, CEO of the Iwokrama Centre in a comment said that the meeting is a significant step forward for bringing these agencies together.
“I think it was a very useful meeting for most of the agencies, if not all today. I don’t know that there has ever been a meeting with all of the agencies involved. In fact, I came out with some very useful facts and links to approach and partner with the other agencies so it is a huge step towards a consolidated effort to the environment. We are looking forward to the June meeting where the President will give us a little more on his thoughts and visions for a green economy,” Gobin said, according to the press release.
