APNU rejects LCDS but vows to spend earnings, campaigns on gains

… Jagdeo calls posture ‘shameless opportunism’

The A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) continues to reject the beneficial nature of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), despite the unprecedented earnings secured through the programme, most notably the US$750 million carbon credit agreement signed in 2022 with United States (US) energy giant Hess Corporation.
Despite these demonstrable benefits, APNU continues to disparage the LCDS framework, claiming they would better manage the proceeds, despite their track record of dismantling the initiative when in office.
During the party’s weekly virtual press conference on Friday, APNU’s Presidential Candidate Aubrey Norton and running mate Juretha Fernandes reiterated their party’s longstanding opposition to the LCDS, even as they seek to campaign on the financial gains generated through the initiative.
“For you to say we don’t support the LCDS is true,” Norton admitted when questioned about the party’s contradictory campaign platform.
“We can engage and look at the positive approach of the LCDS, which we have done… I see no contradiction between the two. There is no contradiction. We will pursue giving more to the Indigenous people on the question of the LCDS carbon credit,” he added.
As part of their campaign promises leading up to the September 1 General and Regional Elections (GRE), the APNU is promising to increase the percentage of proceeds to Indigenous communities, from Guyana’s carbon credit sales, to 50 per cent. This is notwithstanding that during the APNU time in Government from 2015 to 2025, the party disbanded the LCDS programme and replaced it with a Green State Development Strategy (GSDS), under which the country never earned any revenue.
The LCDS was revived as “LCDS 2030” when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) returned to Government in 2020.
The carbon credit multi-year agreement with Hess came through initiatives developed under the revived LCDS 2030, which focuses on reducing deforestation and protecting its forests.
In signing the agreement with Hess, the Government committed to annually giving Indigenous communities at least 15 percent of the carbon credit sale to incentivise environmental stewardship and support sustainable development within Indigenous communities.
The first payments, totalling US$22 million (GY$4.75 billion), were distributed to 241 Indigenous communities based on a formula considering population and village size. In 2024, the Government increased the funding from 15 per cent to 26.5 per cent.
APNU faced questions about its campaign promises for the LCDS on Friday, after Fernandes spoke on the issue at a public meeting in Bartica last Saturday and promised that should APNU be elected to Government following the GRE, APNU would not only increase the proceeds to Indigenous communities to 50 per cent, but that the money would be given to individuals as opposed to being given to the village councils, which are elected by the residents of the respective villages.
On Thursday, Vice President and PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo slammed the APNU’s posture as “shameless”, accusing the party of political opportunism and pointing out that the same party had shelved the LCDS and replaced it with the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS), which yielded no revenue during its implementation.