More carbon credit deals to come before year end – Pres Ali

– says Guyana pushing nature-based solutions at COP30

Guyana is to increase the amount of revenues earned from selling its forest carbon as the country continues to push the importance of nature-based solutions to the global climate change fight.
“Hopefully, we will be able to announce before the end of this year, some more agreements on forest carbon and to have more partners aligned with us,” President Dr Irfaan Ali revealed during an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil.

While the COP30 negotiations are slated for November 10 to 21, 2025, the Guyanese leader last week participated in the World Leaders Summit, where he delivered presentations at the opening ceremony as well as at a roundtable discussion on energy transition.
In the interview streamed on his official Facebook page on Saturday, President Ali said he was able to not only demonstrate Guyana’s leadership on sustainable development but also position the country in a pole position on tropical forests and biodiversity.
“At this COP, we were able to continue advancing our case, but more importantly, sending a strong signal that nature-based solutions cannot be avoided, overlooked, or excluded from any system that we are moving forward with… These are some of the challenges that we have to fight – tropical forests, getting nature in there. And this has been Guyana’s position from day one.
“We must not be arguing whether tropical forests and nature products and biodiversity should be on the agenda. These are important aspects of the climate equation and achieving net zero, but more than achieving net zero, achieving sustainable living, sustainable livelihood, and an ecosystem that supports the livelihood of countries and people in a holistic way,” the Head of State explained.

Monetizing forests
COP30 is being held in the city of Belém, in the Brazilian State of Pará, and marks the first time that the global climate change summit is seated in the Amazon region, the world’s largest tropical rainforest – parts of which run through Guyana.
With a tropical forest that takes up 86 per cent of its landmass, Guyana has the second-highest percentage of forest cover on earth and one of the lowest deforestation rates. The forest stores 19.5 gigatonnes of carbon and sequesters more than 153 million tonnes annually.
Guyana began monetising its forest in 2009 when then President Bharrat Jagdeo struck a US$227 million deal with the Kingdom of Norway for the sale of its forests’ carbon. This agreement came under Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) – a national plan crafted to drive sustainable development in the country.
This strategy was revised under the last Ali-led administration and reintroduced in 2022. Under the LCDS 2030, Guyana has launched various initiatives over the last three years that have seen the country earning millions of dollars, especially from the sale of its carbon credits, which have been certified by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) TREES mechanism.
In December 2022, Guyana was issued with 33.4 million tonnes of ART-certified carbon credits – the first jurisdictional-scale programme in the world. Days later, the country entered into a historic US$750 million multi-year deal with United States energy major Hess Corporation for the sale of the high-quality carbon credits until 2030, starting with retrospective credits that fill the revenue gap for 2016 to 2020.
Then in 2024, Guyana was issued 7.14 million carbon credits dating back to 2021, marking the first time carbon credits have been issued that can be used by airlines in an effort to meet their carbon emission targets for the 2024-2026 period in the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) market – the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s global emissions reduction programme.
In the past year, Guyana has sold credits to some 20 airlines through a partnership with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as well as to US-based technology giant Apple Inc. – something which President Ali previously said demonstrates the integrity and credibility of the country’s system to the most demanding buyers in the world.
Guyana’s current Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday last pointed out that while Guyana has made some small sales in the CORSIA market, the country is pursuing high prices, such as in the Hess deal.
Only last week, President Ali revealed that total revenues from carbon credit sales for 2025 would near US$200 million by the end of this year, taking the amount of revenue received over the last three years under the revised LCDS 2030 to around US$400 million.
Moreover, the Guyana Government has been investing the monies earned from the carbon credit sales into the country’s LCDS priorities, with a portion of these revenues – a guaranteed 15 per cent, but 20 per cent in practice – going directly into some 240 Amerindian and Hinterland communities for various economic development projects.
During Saturday’s interview, President Ali pointed out that the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), being piloted by Brazil, is an addition to the many options available for forested countries. The TFFF is a $125 billion investment fund that pays countries in return for protecting and preserving their forests.
It complements the Forests and Climate Leaders Partnership (FCLP) – a group of almost 40 countries, co-chaired by Guyana and the United Kingdom, that works together and with other partners to develop the Forest Finance Roadmap, a shared plan setting out a menu of six complementary options to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030.