Home News Guyana to rally for climate adaptation funding for Caribbean States at COP28...
– will advocate for forests to comply with market
Guyana will be raising its voice at the upcoming Conference of Parties (COP 28) to solicit funding for climate adaptation measures for small-island and low-lying coastal developing states that stand to face the imminent brunt of climate change.
Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday stated that while Guyana has the necessary finances to activate climate adaptation mechanisms, this is not the case for many vulnerable nations in the Caribbean.
Government engaged the international community last week, ahead of COP28, to solicit support in moving forward the issues that are important to Guyana and the Caribbean. The position of Caricom is rooted in their advocation for funding in areas of adaptation, and loss and damage.
“We have not waited for international funding to tackle adaptation issues here. We’re finding our own sources to tackle adaptation. Some countries unfortunately don’t have the assets we have, like the rest of the region. That’s why we act in strong solidarity with them to see that the monies that are pledged are delivered,” Jagdeo asserted.
“One point we made to the donors and international community to say back to their capitals is we expect that there will be some consistency in the accountability for climate funds…We’re not hopeful that the money will come soon, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to be dumbing down our voices globally in support of the other countries that need this now, especially the Caribbean.”
President Dr Irfaan Ali has already called out developed countries over their failure to fulfil the US$100 billion per year pledge to assist developing nations fight against climate change.
This year, Government forged a striking multi-year agreement with United States energy major Hess Corporation for the sale of high-quality carbon credits to the tune of a whopping US$750 million.
The money received from the carbon credit agreement with Hess would total US$150 million by the end of 2023. Some $22.5 million has been disbursed to 242 Amerindian villages where 500 projects are under implementation. The sum of US$122.5 million remains in an account to be used for adaptation funding.
Forest preservation
Guyana is not only focused on supporting Caricom, but adding new dimensions – an important one being forest preservation.
“We have argued that there should be the right incentives globally to preserve forests, and that there should be a just transition in the global arena…We made the argument that forests cannot be saved by philanthropy. We have gone past that model. It is an important abatement solution to climate change. You cannot achieve net zero without tackling key sources of emission, which are forests and land degradation,” he argued.
He contended that this topic has not generated the required attention since it is not part of a compliance market – an issue that the Government is hoping to change by calling for financial incentives for forests.
“There are no public funds now at scale dedicated to saving forests, and we don’t expect any to be made available, given how adaptation for funding has failed globally. It suffered from a lack of funding, so we don’t expect that public money will be going into trying to preserve forests globally. We have to work on stimulating a market-based mechanism to do that,” Jagdeo outlined.
Forest preservation is part of a menu of measures backed by Guyana to achieve net zero by 2050. Guyana has taken an approach to show the world how net zero can be achieved without putting the world through ‘hardships.’ This includes a reduction in fossil fuel production; introducing renewable energy at scale to displace the growth of demand for energy; demand management; use of technology; and reducing deforestation and land degradation.
“We believe if you do all five of these things, then you can achieve net zero without pushing the world through hardships or that will come out of unilateral action, particularly if you just displace fossil fuel immediately now. This will be our approach at COP. We intend to pursue these views vigorously, and we’re a good example,” said the former Head of State.
The Vice President has posited that Guyana enters COP28 with great credibility. At the national level, the Government is moving to decarbonize the energy sector with a 70 per cent reduction in emissions.
He stated, “We’re one of the few countries in the world that have a Low Carbon Development Strategy. We have the biggest forestry deal in the world. We have robust and good-quality carbon. We have the only international jurisdictional certification for forests, so we go to COP with great credibility.”
