Guyana could earn at least US$2.5B in 10 years from carbon credits – VP Jagdeo tells COP28

– says Guyana can leverage market upsides

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP28), has revealed that Guyana has the potential to raise at least US$2.5 billion from its carbon credits over the next 10 years.
The Vice President was at the time addressing a COP28 panel discussion on Saturday, held under the theme “Protecting Nature for Climate, Lives, and Livelihoods.” He also shared the stage with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo, with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron, among others, in attendance and making presentations.
In his presentation, Jagdeo noted the distinction Guyana has earned, through its US$750 million carbon credits deal with Hess Corporation, of being the only forest in the world with jurisdictional scale forest certification. He further noted the potential to raise US$2.5 billion over the next 10 years, by tapping into favourable market upsides.

“We’ve been able to get certified credits and we’ve sold 30 per cent of those credits for $750 million at a minimum. And I say at a minimum because if there is an upside, the credits are traded in secondary markets or if there is any movement in a global market, then we would share 60 per cent of the upside of any increase in prices.”
“So, if we were to sell the remaining 70 per cent of our credits at the same price at which we sold the credits that we recently sold, the 30 per cent, we will raise, over the next 10 years, at a minimum $2.5 billion to come into our country,” Jagdeo explained.
The Vice President further noted that when one considers the size of Guyana’s forests, “bigger than England and Scotland, but tiny compared to Ghana and the Congo and Brazil and many other countries in the world”, it therefore means there is a scale of financing needed to be raised to outcompete alternate use of those forests.
Guyana remains a staunch advocate for a better price for carbon credits on the world market. Only a few months ago, President Dr Irfaan Ali had revealed that the aim remains to push for a US$70 per tonne carbon credit price.
During a discussion at the University of Guyana with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was visiting Guyana, President Ali had pointed out that there currently exists a severe financing gap.
He had further said that the Region requires $2.3 trillion to achieve the essential Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Guyana, according to President Ali, faces further complications when the underwhelming prices for carbon credits on the world market is considered.
“So, what is very critical, as all the studies would have shown, for us to achieve the transition we want with energy, and for us to achieve the shift in development focus, the carbon price must be US$70 per tonne. It is not even US$7. And that is why the market is so important. We have to fix that fundamentally,” President Ali had said.
Last year, Guyana signed a contract with Hess Corporation which will see the nation earning US$750 million for 30 per cent of its forest within ten years. In Guyana’s agreement, a rate of US$15 per tonne of carbon was secured and so far, 15 per cent ($4.7 billion) is allocated towards Amerindian development.
Already, over 500 projects that run the gamut from tourism to agriculture, are currently being pursued from the $4.7 billion that was given to the hundreds of Indigenous villages as part of their share from the US$150 million carbon credit sale.
In addition to its rich biodiversity and ecosystem, Guyana’s total forest cover of some 18.4 million hectares stores more than 19.5 gigatonnes of carbon and removes some 154 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually. (G-3)