Access to global incentives for forests and sufficient climate financing will be among the major topics of discussion Guyana will be raising at the 2023 UN Climate Change Confer-ence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday.
Jagdeo made the statement during a press conference on government-related matters at the Office of the President as the country will be participating in the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) slated for November 30 to December 12 in the UAE.
The Vice President underscored that officials from the international community will be reminded of the need to devise mechanisms for adaptation and climate financing as Guyana continues to roll out the sale of carbon credits.
He reiterated that US$22.5m had been allocated towards 242 Indi-genous communities to aid in the implementation of adaptation, development, and livelihood, in many of these hinterland areas.
“Fifteen per cent of carbon credit revenues are transferred directly to all 242 Indigenous villages and communities in Guyana, which invest revenues in village plans put together at village meetings,” Jagdeo explained.
A further US$125 million is being invested through multi-community and national programmes, he highlighted.
The Vice President noted that the particular initiatives that will profit from the 85 per cent allocation are the expansion of the canal systems, the restoration of koker networks, and the upgrading of the water management capabilities in various areas.
Last year, Guyana became the first country to earn money for protecting its rainforests through the sale of its carbon credits under the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) TREES credit programme.
Notwithstanding the accolade, Jagdeo made it clear that the government continues to make it known to the international community that emphasis cannot only be on funding initiatives, but mechanisms of sustainability are important.
“So, our argument to the International Community is that you just can’t have funding for these initiatives, but you have to pay attention to the mechanism for getting the funds to the recipients, that it is a mechanism fit for purpose and that it should lend to building capacity in communities,” the Vice President posited.
Jagdeo reasoned that the world is already experiencing changes in average temperature, shifts in the seasons, extreme weather events, and other factors, and the faster the climate changes and the longer adaptation efforts are put off, the more difficult and expensive responding to climate change will be.
He is adamant that countries and communities need to develop adaptation solutions and implement actions to respond to current and future climate change impacts.
While many nations and communities are already taking steps to build resi-lient societies and econo-mies, the Vice President posited that greater action and ambition will be needed to cost-effectively manage the risks, both now and in the future.
Jagdeo also informed that at COP 28, the government will inform the international delegation that the country’s forest can be sustained through philanthropic efforts, as the main focus must be premised on achieving net zero by reducing carbon emissions and land degradation.
Philanthropy
“We’ve made the argument that forests cannot be saved by philanthropy. We’ve passed that model. It is an important abatement solution to climate change, you cannot achieve net zero without tackling a key source of emission, which is forest and land degradation, and it is not getting the required attention because forest carbon is not part of a compliance market,” he added.
He believed that attention is not being paid to these issues which were highlighted by other leaders at climate change conferences on innumerable occasions.
The Vice President said that he doesn’t expect public funds to sustain Guyana’s rainforest and that is why policymakers must now focus on stimulating new mechanisms that will sustain forests globally and locally.
“There are no public funds now… at scale being dedicated to saving forests, and we don’t expect any to be made available, given how adaptation funding has fared globally. Because, it has suffered from lack of funding, so we don’t expect that public money will be going into trying to preserve forests globally, so we have to work at stimulating a market-based mechanism to do that.”
“We had momentum around it but it was killed by many international NGOs although if they say they want to preserve forest and since then we have lost that momentum that is trying to get market-based mechanism to compete for alternate use for forest and what has happened since we lost that momentum now what has replaced it?
“In Glasgow (Scotland) we had the leaders pledging to end deforestation by 2030 but with no money here we were catering for the goodwill of countries that are not going to happen we made it clear that forest carbon has additional benefits to biodiversity-ecosystem benefits and yet there is no market or financial incentive for forest carbon but there are great incentives for other types of carbon, in the compliance markets globally.”
The Vice President lamented that implementing market based mechanisms as outlined in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
When the Paris Agreement was approved in 2015, its Article 6 was viewed as a major advance for achieving the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the evolving international climate regime, given that it embraced more clearly, the notion that “cooperative approaches” (often indicating “markets”) could help governments achieve their national carbon reduction and removal targets.
This advance could occur through international transactions in carbon reduction credits, and cooperative approaches and also encourage the private sector to contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. Notably, the Paris Agreement also embraced outright “non-market approaches” among two or more parties.
In the six years that followed, however, negotiators struggled to agree upon the detailed rules for how these “cooperative approaches” would function.
The outcome of the UNFCCC’s Twenty-Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow marks a breakthrough in finalising these rules and opening up the promise of carbon markets.
The Vice President noted that climate financing is needed for mitigation because large-scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions.
According to him, this mechanism is equally important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate.
The Paris Agreement reaffirmed the obligations of developed countries, while for the first time also encouraging voluntary contributions by other Parties. Developed country Parties should also continue to take the lead in mobilizing climate finance from a wide variety of sources, instruments, and channels, noting the significant role of public funds, through a variety of actions, including supporting country-driven strategies, and taking into account the needs and priorities of developing country Parties.
Through this mechanism, a company in one country can reduce emissions in that country and have those reductions credited so that it can sell them to another company in another country. That second company may use them to comply with its emission reduction obligations or to help it meet net zero.
Against this background, the Vice President believes it is important for all governments and stakeholders to understand and assess the financial needs of developing countries, as well as to understand how these financial resources can be mobilized.
The provision of resources should also aim to achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation.
