COP26: Pres Ali meets with US President, Canadian PM, India PM

…holds meetings with Caribbean bloc leaders

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Monday used the opportunity afforded by COP26 to meet and interact with world leaders, all in Glasgow, Scotland, to play their part in steering the world towards a sustainable future.
Among those the President met were United States (US) President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Head of State also interacted with Latin American leaders, such as Iván Duque Márquez.

Additionally, he met with Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah during the summit. Closer to home, President Ali met Surinamese President Chandrikapersad Santokhi, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Brown and Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis.
With respect to the Caribbean bloc, President Ali also met with Barbados’ Prime Minister, Mia Mottley; Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley; Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness; Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne and St Lucia’s Prime Minister, Phillip J Pierre.
The Caribbean Community (Caricom) is heading into COP26 lobbying as a bloc for more to be done for the protection of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and low-lying coastal states, as well as more access to development financing.
The President met with President of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 26, Alok Sharma, at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, Scotland.

During the meeting, discussions centred on Guyana’s objectives and aims at the international climate conference. The Head of State also updated Sharma on Guyana’s expanded Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that was recently launched for national consultation, while he reminded him of Guyana’s effective low carbon development over the last 12 years.

COP26 is slated to run from Sunday to November 12 and will see the attendance of many Heads of State. President Dr Irfaan Ali arrived in Scotland to participate in the convention on Sunday. The President, who left Guyana on Saturday morning, was received by a representative of the Queen upon his arrival in Glasgow, Scotland.
President Ali’s schedule includes delivering several addresses at key high-level climate summits, participating in several international roundtable discussions and partaking in bilateral meetings with other Heads of State and Government officials. Holness, Pierre and Davis were among the Caribbean leaders he engaged even before they arrived in Scotland.

The President is coming off weeks of activism in favour of SIDS and climate change and it was he who launched the national consultation process for the expanded LCDS 2030 last week. The new LCDS 2030 document states that it will build on the objectives of the old document and capitalise on various opportunities for the country to earn money and grow its economy. Among them is climate financing.

“From early 2022, there is a strong possibility that Guyana can access market-based mechanisms for forest climate services that includes private, as well as international public sector financing,” the LCDS draft states.
“This will enable a pathway to transition from the existing Guyana-Norway partnership and increase the value of sustainably managing Guyana’s forests. The MRVS system, built since 2009, will also act as a platform for integration with other ecosystem services markets.”
Another opportunity open to Guyana from the strategy is to stimulate future growth through clean energy and sustainable economic activity. It theorises that Guyana can undergo a revolutionary energy transition while growing its economy and keeping greenhouse gas emissions from energy use at around 2019 levels.
Additionally, the document talks of targeted support for Amerindian and other communities who depend on industries such as logging and who would likely be affected by restrictions on logging activities. According to the LCDS, 15 per cent of revenues from these forest climate services will go to Amerindian communities. (G3)