Climate change office hampered by lack of technical staff – parliamentary report

– but developing strategies to protect against climate change

Tasked with developing policies to help Guyana mitigate the challenges of climate change, the Office of Climate Change (OCC) is not without challenges of its own, as articulated in the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee’s fifth periodic report.
In the report, head of the Office of Climate Change, Janelle Christian explained that some of the constraints under which her office works include a lack of technical staff and the need for improved technology at the regional and national levels.
But also, when it comes to preparing the low coastal plain region from the effects of climate change which could include overtopping of the seawall, Christian revealed that a draft Climate Change Resilient Strategy was awaiting Cabinet’s approval.

“Also, the Office of Climate Change would be pursuing how to prepare farmers and the various communities for the natural disaster of flooding.” She further stated that a project financed by the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) through the Ministry of Public Health would be working with various health centres around the coastal areas to ensure that they’re equipped and trained to handle any flood situation.
She also spoke of a project supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and financed by Japan, which would support disaster risk reduction for crop and livestock farming in the agriculture sector.
It was only a few weeks ago that the office, based in the Ministry of the Presidency, hosted a stakeholder validation workshop on the National Climate Change Policy and Action Plan.
The workshop, which was hosted at Cara Lodge and saw several stakeholders in attendance, was aimed at pursuing sustainable management of forest resources, which is a major source of mitigation to the change in climate.
Guyana’s climate change policy is intended to integrate the socio-economic and environmental challenges of climate change into national sustainable development planning that generates strategic actions at all levels for adaptation, mitigation and resilience.
The national goals for addressing climate include the reduction of climate-related loss and damage across productive sectors, promoting community development and redirecting economic activities away from vulnerable areas. It also aims at reducing poverty, loss of livelihood and food insecurity and promoting a clean environment for all.
Some of its other objectives include targeting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions across sectors and transitioning to climate resilient infrastructure and integrated physical land use plans. It also seeks to promote holistic development planning by utilising environmentally friendly materials and adopting new technologies and early warning signs.
Further, it also aims to develop and implement sustainable land management best practices to combat land degradation with focus on the hinterland and improved availability and access to climate change data and information.