Home News Guyana needs more than goodwill, declarations to preserve forests – VP Jagdeo...
…identifies 4-point model that would secure climate financing
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, while addressing a COP28 panel discussion, made it clear that countries like Guyana need more than goodwill and declarations to preserve their forests, laying out the necessary conditions for achieving net zero through avoided deforestation.
On Saturday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo shared a stage with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo and Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the COP28 conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) during a panel discussion.
The panel discussion focused on reversing deforestation, which would contribute to a 30 per cent reduction of emissions and achieving net zero. In his presentation, Jagdeo spoke of Guyana’s efforts to certify its forests. He also stressed the conditions necessary to avoid deforestation.
“We believe in Guyana that the only way in the long term, that we’d be able to preserve our forests, is to have a model that has several elements. We believe there are four important elements to the model that we launched in 2008 and we recently updated.”
“First of all, forests have to be integrated into a national development strategy. Secondly, the solution has to be a jurisdictional scale solution. Thirdly, Indigenous people and those who live in the forest have to be part of the solution. Then we believe that you have to have strong forest legislation and robust enforcement of that legislation,” the Vice President explained.
But the most important element of all, according to Jagdeo, is financing. Jagdeo made it clear that developing countries with large forests need more than goodwill and declarations, to contribute to net-zero solutions. This would echo calls President Dr Irfaan Ali has made, for the developed world to play a bigger role in financing the climate change fight.
“The next element, which is the critical one, is that you have to identify a revenue stream to outcompete alternate use of the forest… without these key elements, we believe that forests cannot be preserved in the long term, either through philanthropy or just goodwill or declarations,” Jagdeo said.
Guyana signed a contract with Hess Corporation in December 2022 which will see the nation earning US$750 million within a ten-year period. While 85 per cent is being invested in multi-community and national priorities, 15 per cent ($4.7 billion) is allocated towards Amerindian development.
To date, several villages have had their plans approved and have already begun implementing their projects. Some villages will use the grants to develop their tourism and agriculture sectors while others are using the money to fund projects that empower women.
The 33.7 million credits sold to Hess Corp is just 30 per cent of the carbon sink contained in Guyana’s vast forest cover. The country’s more than 18 million hectares of forest are estimated to store approximately 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In the meantime, the remaining 70 per cent of Guyana’s carbon credits are currently attracting interest from several markets, and Vice President Jagdeo had previously said that the Government is now exploring these opportunities.
A carbon credit is a tradable permit or certificate that allows the holder of the credit the right to emit a stated tonnage of carbon dioxide or an equivalent of another greenhouse gas. Countries and companies that exceed their permitted limits can purchase carbon credits from nations that have low emissions such as Guyana.
The deal with Hess came on the heels of Guyana being the first country to receive a certification of more than 33 million carbon credits by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) on December 1, 2022. Jagdeo has said that Guyana has the potential to earn over US$2.5 billion over 10 years from the country’s carbon credits.
