Moontown

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA) — Guyana’s pioneering work in climate planning and strategy was recognized at a forum on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations global summit in Copenhagen, Denmark as it moved into its high-level stage.

This country was cited for the development of its low carbon growth strategy and the progress made with the Norway–Guyana Agreement and the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.
President Bharrat Jagdeo and members of the Guyana delegation attended the side event titled `The Best-Laid Plans: Turning Ideas into Action on Mitigation, Adaptation and Finance’ organized by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Jagdeo was the featured speaker at the event.

It was organized to showcase new research WRI has produced on the processes by which countries can develop plans to mitigate emissions, particularly from forests and from energy. It also looked at adapting to climate change and creating a platform for government, private sector, and civil society actors from developed and developing countries to share perspectives on the requirements of effective planning processes.

Jagdeo in his address outlined the approach Guyana has taken in working towards establishing a model of how REDD+ can work towards addressing the drivers of deforestation at a national scale while at the same time ensuring key principles of participation, transparency, and accountability are upheld. REDD is Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation and is a central feature of this country’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

Guyana last month reached an historic deal with Norway under which that country will provide US$250M in support over five years for the LCDS.

The President is due to continue meeting Wednesday morning with other leaders arriving for the summit, including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
On Tuesday, while negotiators were wrapping up the final stages before the high level segment of the summit began, President Jagdeo met several other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders and President of the Maldives, Nasheed Mohammed to discuss progress on the negotiations leading into the high level Segment. Jagdeo is current CARICOM Chairman.

President Nasheed has taken a global lead on the need for urging action on climate change. The Maldives is one of the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels and its Cabinet recently held an underwater meeting to draw attention the problems of climate change.

At a side event, organized by the Caribbean Climate Change Centre and attended by several regional Prime Ministers including Dean Barrow of Belize, Stephenson King of St Lucia, Tillman Thomas of Grenada, and CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington and Deputy Secretary General Edward Greene, Jagdeo pointed out that at Copenhagen, CARICOM’s position will be tested.

He underlined the need to have a realistic assessment of what is likely to emerge and how as a region CARICOM can encourage a favourable outcome. He pointed out that while the IPCC (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) in its fourth assessment report emphasized a target of 2 degrees Celsius, the current pledges for greenhouse gas emission cuts by Annex 1 countries are far from achieving this.

He noted that commitments from China and India are critical in moving this forward and the challenge to the negotiations is how to get these two major players on board.

Referring to financing, Jagdeo pointed out that while there is a commendable effort spearheaded by the United Kingdom and France to mobilise fast-track financing of US$10 billion annually, this is proving to be a challenge and is nowhere near the level of financing required.

However, he said, it is a start and should be supported with a view towards ratcheting this up to US$150 billion by 2020 through a variety of funding sources, including public and private financing. (Caribnet)