Template needed to help small countries to integrate AI in development – Jagdeo at WSDS 2026

…talks economic framing of climate action

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has called on international stakeholders to develop frameworks to assist small countries in the Global South overcome their capacity gaps and apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) for sustainable development and climate action.

“We have to today… start thinking about how we help the smaller countries of the South, particularly in building small templates or approaches where they can bypass the reluctance or the gap in knowledge at the local level and fully use AI for development, including to help us solve climate issues,” Jagdeo said.
He made these remarks while delivering his inaugural address at the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) at the Taj Palace in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday.
The global summit, hosted annually by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), is one of the world’s leading platforms for dialogue on climate action, sustainability, and green development.
Addressing policymakers, researchers, and climate advocates at the annual gathering in New Delhi, the Guyanese Vice President pointed out that there cannot be a conversation about sustainable development without including AI in the mix.
“We can’t say the focus of this summit is on transformation and not examine the challenge that AI will bring to sustainable issues,” he stated.
Citing issues of size, lack of capacity, and other complexities, Jagdeo pointed out that many Global South countries, already grappling with technology gaps, are at risk of a new challenge with AI.
“India has great capacity… That is not so for many other countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, and so those countries cannot now suffer a new development challenge of the computer and data divide. That will happen, and if we don’t want that to happen, we have to now work out templates… for those countries to follow so that they can organise their AI diffusion because there’s hardly AI development in those smaller countries.”
To this end, Jagdeo urged international organisations such as TERI to assist governments in these small countries to integrate AI into national development strategies, especially in areas of education and healthcare. These efforts, he underscored, are even more important at a time when there are reluctance and fear surrounding AI.
“AI will bring great challenges to development, but it can also bring great rewards for development… We have to help build awareness around AI and its impact on development.”
“Many of our policymakers don’t understand the impact of AI and its effect on development, and we can’t be at a Sustainable Development Summit and not understand the impact that AI would have… TERI must now help in the planning process ; just like we added a climate variable to national planning in the past, we now need to add an AI variable to national planning,” the VP asserted.
Shifting his attention to Guyana, Jagdeo outlined that Guyana has set an example of how small countries can leverage their resources to promote sustainable development. He cited Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which was crafted in 2009 under his presidency, as a model for how countries can balance economic growth with forest conservation.
“We sold 30 per cent of our forest carbon for US$750 million,” he noted, while mentioning Guyana’s burgeoning oil and gas sector, which will be producing about two million barrels of oil per day in the coming years. “We want to prove that you can do that and still have a sustainable strategy within the country.”
But while he touted forest preservation as an option for forested developing countries to generate significant revenues, the Vice President lamented the fact that forest carbon credits remain undervalued in international climate markets, with most transactions occurring in voluntary systems rather than compliance frameworks.
Against this backdrop, Jagdeo argued that climate solutions must make economic sense to gain political traction.
“I think we need to emphasise the economic arguments around climate issues more and more because you may have a climate outcome, but it’s good economics and nobody argues with economics,” he said, pointing to India’s and China’s dominance in solar technology and electric vehicles as examples of climate solutions becoming profitable industries.
This point was made on the heels after highlighting how geopolitical shifts impact climate action. Citing the United States’ absence from key climate negotiations, he said, “Often we are reluctant to confront the biggest issue that is affecting us right now, and that is the need to raise ambition to achieve the climate goals that we have set for ourselves, and with the absence of the United States of America at the table… it would be very, very difficult for us to achieve.”
“So, I think the challenge before this gathering over the next couple of days is to find ways where we can move forward even without the participation of the United States of America at this point in time,” the Guyanese official stated.
Nevertheless, the Vice President further shed light on Guyana’s recently launched Global Biodiversity Alliance, arguing that biodiversity could be the catalyst to bring climate skeptics to the table.
“We just realized that in many parts of the world, including in the United States, many people who were climate skeptics may also be strong supporters of biodiversity protection,” he surmised.
During the WSDS opening session on Wednesday, remarks were also delivered by India’s Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, along with other international leaders and climate stakeholders.
In 2025, Jagdeo was named among a select group of just 18 global figures to receive the prestigious Sustainable Development Leadership Award – one of the summit’s highest honours. The award recognises transformative leadership in climate action, environmental protection, and sustainable development.
Past awardees include world leaders, global policymakers, and influential figures in climate and development.