Global pledges on climate change “too small” – VP Jagdeo tells World Sustainable Development Summit

Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has sounded a call for more financial pledges to climate change initiatives to be undertaken globally, especially by small developing countries which need funding in order to achieve sustainable development.
He made this remark at the opening of the World Sustainable Development Summit 2023 in New Delhi, India on Wednesday. The three-day event is being held under the theme: “Mainstreaming Sustainable Development and Climate Resilience for Collective Action.”

According to Vice President Jagdeo, the issues of sustainable development and climate resilience are often dealt with separately, but they are interlinked, as demonstrated in the case of small island developing states such as in the Caribbean region.
“Many developing countries will never achieve sustainable development goals unless they have the financing to do that…Now, the small countries do not need only climate finance, they need a reform of the global financial system for them to achieve sustainable development,” he stated.
Jagdeo explained that most of the Caribbean countries are fiscally stressed, with just one sector, mainly tourism, that brings in all their wealth. This, he noted, makes them extremely vulnerable and debt stressed.
With a lot of these countries using more than half of their revenues to service debt, the Guyanese VP pointed out, unless their financial plights are addressed by multilateral agencies, they would never be able to have a sustainable medium-term economic framework, especially not having the resources to address the catastrophic damage of weather-related events that they face every season.
“So, the search for sustainability for those countries has to include all of these options. We have to have a contingent line of credit from the multilateral financial institutions that they can draw down on if there is a hurricane immediately. For them to work their way out of the fiscal situation, they have to be able to expand their economy and be able to trade, because their growth can’t be driven by internal demand, and they need a favourable trading environment to do that.
“We’re not talking about just sustainability of ecosystems for them, we’re talking about the sustainability of the countries themselves and their future wellbeing… because right now it’s clear that we are not going to achieve any of the targets. We can’t mask this over, the pledges are too small to achieve the 1.5 or even two degrees raise above pre- industrial level,” the Guyanese official stressed.
Moreover, VP Jagdeo outlined that the path forward in tackling climate change requires a balancing approach on various fronts of sustainable action. He noted that the debate is often between the extremes, and this clouds the search for solutions.
“We need balance in the discussions that take place at these various bodies if we’re going to find lasting solutions… We need to reduce the production of fossil fuel; we need carbon capture, utilization and storage; and we need a mass transit into renewable energy. It is these three — combined action on all three fronts — that would deliver lasting solutions,” he contended.

Guyana’s commitment
To this end, the Vice President stated that Guyana remains committed to playing a role in the fight against the climate crisis and the shift to renewable energy. He noted that despite being an oil and gas producer, Guyana has a sustainable framework in place that features the country using the revenues earned from its petroleum industry as well as from its sale of forest carbon to give its citizens access to renewable energy.
“So we are helping to fund our energy transition from those resources… [Guyana’s goal is to] triple installed capacity and yet cut emissions by 70 per cent by 2030,” he reminded.
In fact, the Vice President pointed to a loan from the Indian Government that Guyana is using to procure some 30,000 small solar units to distribute to every household in the hinterland, so that the country’s Indigenous People can have access to electricity.
“We’re using it for adaptation purposes…So that’s how we are mainstreaming it into our sustainability development agenda in Guyana’s case…We are going to ensure that we do our part, in spite of us being a producer of oil and gas. But if you have any justice about climate issues, the existing producers have to make way now for some of the new producers…because the world will still need the demand,” the Guyanese official maintained.
On this note, Jagdeo, a former Guyanese President who was named a ‘Champion of the Earth’ in 2010 by the United Nations, further responded to continued criticism of Guyana’s decision to extract its abundant oil resources offshore, arguing that there needs to be sustainable consumption of fossil fuel.
“If the world wants to decarbonize faster, it will [have to] cut the demand for fossil fuel faster. And so sometimes we get lectures from people who are growing their demand all the time for fossil fuel or for energy, and then they lament the fact that it has to be supplied from fossil fuel, yet they are not providing the financing to introduce renewable energy at scale,” he pointed out.
Vice President Jagdeo arrived in India earlier this week along with Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, and has already met several ministers of the Indian Government and other officials.
His official visit to New Delhi is expected to further strengthen bilateral cooperation between Guyana and India in several areas. (G8)