Visionary leader – 2009 Lcds, 2010 Champion of the Earth, 2022 1st Global Carbon Credit

In 2009, he launched Guyana’s LCDS, Guyana becoming the very first developing country in the world to embark on a low carbon development strategy (LCDS). In 2010, he was named the first ever Caricom citizen to be honoured as a Champion of the Earth by the UN. In 2010, he negotiated one of the first carbon credit compensation programmes, pushing the idea that our forests could earn millions of dollars by being kept, rather than by being cut down. Norway agreed with him when they signed an agreement to compensate Guyana up to US$250M for carbon credit. In 2022, Guyana became the first country ever to be awarded formal carbon credits under the REDD+ programme. Also, in 2022, Guyana became one of the first countries to formally sell carbon credits, when HESS Corporation procured over US$750M worth of carbon credits from Guyana. Carbon credits have suddenly become one of the largest export products for Guyana.
The leader who made this all happen is Bharrat Jagdeo. For those who did not appreciate why he was named Champion of the Earth, it has suddenly dawned on them that he knew all along what he was doing. This is what visionary leaders do. It was a bold move in 2007 when he invited an international group to help craft the developing world’s first low carbon development strategy, and one of the first ever national economic strategies based on a low-carbon development trajectory.
It is safe to say that without Bharrat Jagdeo’s leadership, Guyana would not have embarked on this pathway. That decision forever changed Guyana’s economic and social development trajectory. The Opposition deemed the LCDS a crazy scheme. One economist, Dr Clive Thomas, bemoaned that the claims made about our forests were fake. The Opposition laughed at the then Jagdeo-led PPP Government. Who is laughing now?
Last week, the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) issued the world’s first REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES) credits to Guyana, marking the first time a country has been issued carbon credits specifically designed for the voluntary and compliant carbon markets, for successfully preventing forest loss and degradation – a process known as jurisdictional REDD+. When Bharrat Jagdeo spoke of this in 2009, asserting that Guyana’s forests are worth more alive than dead, few believed him. But now the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions has credited Guyana for 33.5M TREES. While many countries have applied for certification, Guyana has blazed the path as the first to have been granted certification for TREES.
This has resulted already in a windfall. Hess Corporation has purchased $US750M worth of Guyana’s carbon credits for a period of ten years. EXXON has also indicated interest. In the ten years to 2032, Guyana can earn a minimum of $US2.5B, or about $US250M per year. In 2009, the naysayers screamed that Bharrat Jagdeo and those who supported him are not just dreamers, but crazy dreamers. Well, the world now wants to pay Guyana because of the visionary leadership of Bharrat Jagdeo. Had the Constitution not prevented Bharrat Jagdeo from continuing as President in 2011, other big things would have happened in Guyana. For certain, Guyana would have had hydroelectricity today, and cheaper electricity. We often forget certain things. Without his leadership, we would still be talking about a bridge across the Berbice River. We would still be talking about a UG campus in Berbice. A visionary leader makes bold moves like these, which change the lives of people forever; which transform a country.
It was Bharrat Jagdeo who made a deal with Hugo Chavez that immediately transformed Guyana’s rice industry. In 2010, Guyana’s rice production was struggling to stay above 200,000 tons annually. After signing a deal with Hugo Chavez, Guyana’s rice production began to climb. Between 2012 and 2014, Guyana’s production went from about 300,000 tons to more than 698,000. Just as he signed a deal with Hugo Chavez, he signed a deal with Fidel Castro in 2006 that saw more than 1,200 young Guyanese going to Cuba to become doctors. Children of poor families, who could not even dream that they would be afforded to go to a university, had a chance to become doctors, not only improving health in our country, but changing the fortunes of their families. These are the myriad ways that a visionary leader changes a country.
But a visionary leader is one who nurtures others. Today, in less than three years as President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali has become a lead Head-of-State in Caricom. Together with Mia Mottley, Irfaan Ali is one of the Caricom leaders who have become world renowned. He has continued in the tradition of Bharrat Jagdeo, making bold moves to – not slowly, but at break-neck speed – transform our country. There was a time when even some of our supporters believed our boast that Guyana would be a high-middle income country by 2030 was just idle words of crazy dreamers. Now we are talking about Guyana becoming a developed country in our lifetime. Leaders do matter.
Bharrat Jagdeo was Finance Minister when Janet Jagan signed the EXXON exploration deal. He was President when the LCDS was launched in 2009. Today, like a twin economic ship, these platforms are projecting Guyana into an unbelievable journey towards a developed country status. This is visionary leadership.