Guyana to lead talks on sustainable development, climate ambition at G77 meeting

Under the auspices of the Group of 77 and China meeting 2020, Guyana is all geared to lead developing nations across the globe, providing insight on sustainability, climate change, and economic development.

During a press conference on Friday, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Hugh Todd indicated that they were looking to address issues confronting the global environment and overcoming such challenges.
The theme for the annual meeting this year is “Maintaining a Low Carbon Development Path towards the 2030 Agenda in the Era of COVID-19”. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres is also expected to deliver a keynote presentation after Guyana’s input on climate finance and climate ambition.
“What we did was try to use the Low Carbon Development Strategy as a platform…This theme is applicable because it provides the framework for sustainable development. It feeds also into the 2030 SDG Agenda, so we think it’s applicable,” Todd stated.
He added, “Guyana has outlined some practical objectives for the meeting: namely, we want to provide space for awareness, partnership building, knowledge sharing and learning lessons. This is among the G77 and China climate action and we’re doing all of this in a COVID-19 environment whilst we try to recover, to get back on track in pursuing our 2030 Agenda.”
The Group of 77 (G77) is a coalition of 134 developing countries, under the umbrella of the UN, set up to promote its members’ collective economic interests and create enhanced joint negotiating capacity. While China has made significant contributions, it is not a member as reflected in the name – G77 and China. Since January 2020, Guyana has held the chairmanship of G77.
Minister Todd recognised that along with pressing issues in developing countries, leaders also have to protect their population from the newest threat – the novel coronavirus.
“The G77 speaks to the developing world, and the developing world has a lot of challenges, be it hunger, transnational organised crime, political instability and in some cases, ethnic strife, poverty, human trafficking. We have all of these issues that we have to deal with and at the same time, we have to deal with the onset of COVID-19.”
The intention is to explore measures taken by countries to shift the world into “equitable resilience” and sustainability. The use of science in policy making and an ecosystem-based approach to climate change are also on the agenda.
Meanwhile, UN Resident Coordinator Mikiko Tanaka commended the leadership by Government to create such input. She said it was extremely important knowledge for developing countries around the world, which have been facing the brunt of multiple crises and challenges.
“We really commend the leadership from the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, led by His Excellency, President Irfaan Ali himself. We need this leadership in the world. The world is facing multiple crises. COVID-19 has hit everybody all around the world. The climate crisis is continuing to hit our world and the developing countries are being impacted much more by all these crises,” Tanaka expounded.
Along with financial support, the UN has also been active in providing technical support for this initiative. (G12)