Offer of entire forest in climate fight stands -Jagdeo tells Commonwealth
meet
Tuesday, October 16th 2007
President Bharrat Jagdeo
Climate change reforms are increasingly skewed in the interest of the
developed world and Commonwealth finance ministers have a chance to reshape
this, President Bharrat Jagdeo said last night while also revealing that he
had offered to deploy the country's entire rainforest in the global warming
battle.
Speaking during the opening ceremony for the three-day Commonwealth Finance
Ministers Meeting (CFMM) last evening at the National Cultural Centre,
President Jagdeo devoted most of his address to climate change, which is
also the main theme running through the CFMM meeting here.
The Head of State revealed that when he met with former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair last year he "outlined our offer to deploy almost our
entire rainforest - which is the size of England - in the long term service
of the world's battle against climate change. That offer remains".
He said Guyana stands ready to engage with any bilateral or commercial
partner who shares Guyana's vision of sustainable development "where our
long-established and world-leading commitment to sustaining our forest can
be matched by economic reward which supports our national development
efforts to create a socially just and prosperous society".
The President's reference yesterday to the rainforest offer was the first
known public disclosure and has not been ventilated locally. It is also not
clear when this offer was made last year.
Jagdeo delivered the main address while Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh made
welcoming remarks. Also addressing the opening were Samoa's Minister of
Finance and the Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth. The opening
was preceded by a number of business meetings at the Guyana International
Conference Centre, Liliendaal which also saw a 90-minute protest by Stabroek
News over the government's withdrawal of ads from the newspaper.
Jagdeo said that it was no longer in doubt that the issue of climate change
in an interconnected world requires the attention of global leaders and
according to current trends the average global temperature would rise by two
or three degrees relative to the pre-industrial period within the next 50
years.
He said that it is projected that one sixth of the world's population would
be threatened by melting glaciers and hundreds of millions would be at risk
of starving.
Presentations made by former US Vice President Al Gore and the United
Nations Inter-governmental Panel report illustrated vividly that climate
change impacts on peace and security around the world.
He said that for years the overall science of climate change was understood
but it was now due to the Stern Review that the world is now in a better
position to quantify the global cost. An increase in global temperature
would cause losses in global GDP of up to 10%.
Extremes
By contrast achieving the cuts in emissions that would avoid the worst
extremes of climate change would cost about one percent of global GDP per
annum.
Creating a world that future generations deserve, he said the valid science
and credible economics must be matched by first-order political resolve to
devise workable solutions that deliver results.
Greenhouse gases, he said could be could be cut in four ways - reducing
demands for emissions in sensitive goods and services; increasing efficiency
in transport and energy usage; switching to lower carbon technologies for
power, heat and transportation; and reducing non-energy emissions by action
such as avoiding tropical deforestation.
On the positive side, he said, that the awareness of climate change around
the world is steadily increasing. The Kyoto Protocol represented a valuable
start in combating climate change and the emergence of a $30 billion carbon
market is but one indication that the problem is now being addressed with
some level of seriousness.
While it was notable that the developed world was beginning to take action,
he said that this must not lead to a focus that benefits only the developed
world.
He noted the excessive focus on aviation in climate change which is already
causing economic damage to the tourism and agriculture industries throughout
the developing world including the Caribbean.
The Caribbean tourism industry has started to suffer from the developed
world government policies which involve the imposition of punitive climate
change taxes on aviation to discourage flying. "This is a cruel irony when
for years the same governments encouraged Caribbean governments to urgently
diversify into tourism to maximise the value from one of the region's most
competitive advantages."
Similarly, he said that scientifically invalid data on the impact of
allegedly less carbon-friendly foods coming from places such as Africa and
South America needs to be addressed as they are not well served by these
reactions.
Global mindset
"We therefore need to elevate the climate debate to address matters that are
truly capable of generating global impact. This means regaining a global
mindset and being guided by clear science and empirical analysis of
potential climate change mitigation solutions," he said.
Jagdeo said that if the world was to regain the global mindset there were
four issues that would require priority attention. These are incorporation
of the United States and Australia into the international framework for
addressing climate change; enabling the large developing countries such as
China and India to integrate within the climate change framework in a way
which recognises that on a per capita basis they are far lower emitters of
greenhouse gases than much of the world; addressing the specific concerns of
the developing world including ensuring necessary support for country-led
adaptation strategies; and avoiding tropical deforestation.
Of particular interest to Guyana was avoiding tropical deforestation, he
said referring to the vast tropical rainforests which cover the country's
land mass. He cited this as one of three principles which should guide the
ministers' input at the upcoming Bali meeting on climate change. The other
two were recognizing that tropical deforestation stems from economic
pressures. "We must square up to this reality, and recognize that the way to
stop deforestation is to ensure that there is an economically viable
alternative".
Third, "we must create incentives to reward both the preservation of
existing forest, and support the restoration of forest which has been
removed".
Referring to Guyana's contribution to climate change through the donation in
1989 by then President Desmond Hoyte of one million acres of virgin forest
to the people of the Commonwealth and the world, he said that despite its
work and research into sustainable forestry practices, it has been
under-funded by international sources.
More recently, he noted that the government in partnership with Conservation
International had set aside a large tract of land in exchange for eco-system
services. However, invaluable this project may be he said that it was not
reflective of the scale of global action that is required.
He was critical of the "perverse incentives" offered to replant forests cut
down as against rewarding standing forests. Tropical deforestation, he
noted, contributes 18% of greenhouse gas emissions and a combined total of
emission coming from the aviation industry since it began.
He called on the Ministers and officials to advance the issues at the
upcoming meeting on climate change in Bali to gain support for the
principles he mentioned.
In his remarks, Guyana's finance minister said that the issues facing the
global village were reflected on the agenda of the finance ministers
meeting, which would be discussed in plenary from today.
He expressed confidence that coming out of the meeting would be appropriate
and bold initiatives to attack the challenges that face the global
community. He noted that the world economy has seen robust growth in
developing and developed countries but there were very disturbing
developments that may undermine these developments and these include
unprecedented oil prices which present a real risk, especially to developing
countries and if unchecked could undermine macro-economic stability and work
against the achieving of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
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