Greening Guyana?

The composition of the air we breathe has for years been changing; there are sources of toxic emissions all around us.  Every year, some 7 million of the world’s people die from air pollution, making it the world’s biggest environmental killer. Then there are the dire effects of global warming, driven largely by an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Guyana attended the UN Climate Change Conference in 2015, and signed — along with 195 countries — the first comprehensive, legally binding pledge to reduce emissions.  We are speaking specifically of the CTEC Conference in Barcelona.  Unfortunately, a few countries have since failed to uphold their own commitments; but in many European countries, the commitment to clean the air has opened new initiatives that are cleaning the air.

That is why we cannot understand why the David Granger Administration has bought three gas-guzzling generators for more than Gy$650 million — to be used on the Essequibo Coast — instead of setting up a wind farm to feed the Essequibo Coast with green energy.

But what is even more disconcerting is that, to date, after two years in office, not one stone has been laid for one green electricity generation plant — be it solar, wind or hydro-power.

It was former President Bharrat Jagdeo who, in 2009, placed Guyana on the green energy map when he spearheaded the launching of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which has resulted in Guyana being eligible for US$250 million for green projects. It is unfortunate that the Granger Administration has chosen to make this entire initiative into a political issue, rather than seeing it as an opportunity to unleash new sources of funding to add energy to our nation’s economic growth. When will the senior leaders in the Granger Administration cease and desist from this seeming childishness and advance the LCDS on its merits?

Figures released from the WHO show that 80% of city dwellers are breathing badly polluted air, and it is just a matter of time before this situation also obtains in Guyana.   By now, this Granger Administration should have, at a minimum, been able to make all Government buildings more efficient in its use of electricity.  It is hoped that, before 2018, at least one ministry would be made into a solar-and-wind hub, thus taking it off the national grid, and in the process saving taxpayers much money.

Energy efficiency can, with technology, be attained in addition to careful use of energy, and products like smart windowpanes, air conditioners, lighting, sustainable architecture and use of appropriate materials — many of which require human resources for their production and distribution. Institutionalising energy efficiency standards and audits is only the beginning.

This path might be the only practical option available to tide over both the economic and environmental crises the world faces today; but, more importantly, give Guyana a chance to help the process of stabilising the rising sea level.  We have skin in this game, because, every day we fail to take Guyana green, we are just adding to the process that one day the tides of the Atlantic Ocean will permanently flow over the sea walls.  The gravity of this situation dictates that all are involved, and all may be consumed if we continue to build and buy more gas-guzzling generators, like Minister David Patterson just did for the Essequibians.