With government seeking to position Guyana as a leading example of a net carbon sink economy at the ongoing 26th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26), civil society campaigners have called out President Irfaan Ali for failing to meaningfully consult with citizens even as they urged that the country demand that all states take urgent action to cut their greenhouse gas emmissions.
“…[D]espite Guyana’s vulnerability and the great importance on COP26, your government has not consulted the citizens of Guyana in meaningful ways. Your government has not consulted us in our communities. We are deeply disappointed by this failure,” a letter to Ali, sent by A Fair Deal for Guyana and signed by more than 150 Guyanese, said.
The civil society group also reminded the President of Article 9 of the constitution, which points to Guyana being a sovereign nation with sovereignty belonging to the people which is exercised through their elected representatives. It also pointed the President’s attention to Article 13 which says that the principal objective of the political system is to establish an inclusionary democracy.
“The political system is supposed to provide citizens with opportunities to take part in the decision making processes of the state, particularly when that decision making affects our wellbeing. As the Head of State, you are the servant of the people of Guyana. It is your duty to listen to us. It is also your duty to act in the best interests of all the people of Guyana based on equality and fairness,” the letter highlighted.
Countries are meeting in Glasgow to recommit to actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in keeping with the Paris Agreement which aims to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. However, based on the current industrialisation trends the world is far from achieving that target; instead, it is on the road to exceeding that number. According to scientists, the world would have to halve emissions over the next decade and reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 if it intends to limit the global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.
COP26’s website states that as part of the Paris Agreement, every country agreed to communicate or update their emissions reduction targets – their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) – every five years to reflect their highest possible ambition and a progression over time. These targets set out how far countries plan to reduce emissions across their entire economy and/or in specific sectors.
2020 marked the end of the first of these five-year cycles. This means that countries would have had to update their 2030 targets before heading to Glasgow.
Demands
A Fair Deal for Guyana, in its letter, outlined four demands that they are hoping that President Ali adopts as part of Guyana’s official negotiating position.
Leading the list of demands is the call for all states to take urgent action to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in keeping with the Paris Agreement. The group notes that industrialised states fuelled their economies by burning fossil fuels which accounts for a large portion of the greenhouse gases emitted. They, therefore, called on Ali to demand that those countries undo the damage to the earth’s climate system through the removal of their greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.
Guyana has long been considered a carbon sink which means that its forests extract more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than the country emits.
“Our forests have removed greenhouse gas from time immemorial and have made a unique historic contribution to mitigating climate change. These forests belong to the state. The state is not the government. The state consists of the people of Guyana…we demand that the people of Guyana are paid for the greenhouse gas that our forests are removing. As the owners of forests, we demand that the payments are made to the people of Guyana, not the government. In light of our unique historic contribution to mitigating climate change, we demand payment at the rate of US$80 per ton. We reserve the right to increase our price in the future,” the letter further stated.
Additionally, in keeping with the State Lands Act and the Amerindian Act of 2006, Fair Deal Guyana is demanding that payments for forests on indigenous-owned lands be made directly to the communities and not the government, non-governmental organisation or group.
Leading example for net carbon sink
At a virtual press conference on Friday, Ali said that Guyana will be participating fully both at the policy and political levels and at a technical level at COP26.
“We intend to signal our commitment as every other nation that will have a responsibility we all have a responsibility to climate change, but it must be differentiated…We must appreciate that Guyana is already in net carbon sink. To address issues of accessibility to financing for mitigation adaptation for small island developing states, we will pursue initiatives to strengthen and expand the market for the sale of carbon credits, and we intend to renew or call for the implementation of the commitment made to the fulfilment of the [US]$100 billion pledge [as part of the Paris Agreement],” Ali said.
He added that Guyana will endorse the Glasgow Declaration on Forests and Land Use. The declaration includes strengthening efforts for forest conservation, ecosystem and accelerated restoration; promoting development policies and strategies that foster sustainable development; reduce vulnerability, build resilience, and enhance resilient rural livelihood; greater investments in food security; appropriate technology and infrastructure for hinterland communities; and redesigned agricultural policies and program to incentivize investment and expansion.
“Our participation in COP will reestablish Guyana, as a leading example, for net carbon sink,” he said
Realistic targets
Guyana is a new oil producer and its emissions plan could come under close scrutiny in Glasgow. Dire warnings have been issued against new investment in fossil fuels but this country and its partners, led by ExxonMobil, are proceeding full speed ahead and targeting oil production of as much as one million barrels per day.
Guyana is also proceeding with a gas-to-shore-to-energy project which will utilise dirty natural gas and projects such as these will be frowned on in Scotland. The government here has thus far failed to develop a depletion policy to govern the rate at which hydrocarbons are extracted.
The former APNU+AFC government, as part of its Green State Development Strategy, had a 2025 target of getting close to 100 per cent of renewable energy. The commitment was also made by then-President David Granger in 2016 when he signed the Paris Agreement in New York.
However, that plan was heavily criticized for being unrealistic because there were very few plans for its implementation.
“When you have a country that doesn’t have any renewables, I think it is good to have a target and promote renewables but in what—six years?—I don’t believe that that is even technically possible,” Latin America energy issues specialist Lisa Viscidi told the Stabroek News in 2019.
On Friday, President Ali said that Guyana will have to outline a realistic and achievable emission reduction ambition.
“It is very important that we outlined a realistic and achievable ambition target. We cannot go and criticize countries that are not sticking to their commitment and then we make targets that cannot be achieved. We have to communicate targets that are achievable and realistic and that is what we’ll be doing and these targets and ambition will be in keeping with our energy strategy and programming,” the President said.
Moreover, President Ali said that the targets will have to be realized in the context of the Low Carbon Development Strategy.
“When I say realistic and achievable, we can’t say Guyana will be 100 per cent on renewable energy by 2025 or 2030 when there is not a single major project in the renewable energy pipeline. If we were to achieve that, we should have already had nearing completion of the Amaila Falls hydro project and major investments in other areas of alternative energy including the natural gas,” he explained.
Taking a jab at the former government, Ali told reporters that there have been no investments, in the last five years in the field of renewable energy, which showed the non-committal to achieving the 100 per cent renewable energy goal.
The COP26 summit starts today and runs until November 12, 2021.
