Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 17, 2010 News
Yet another facet of Low Carbon Development (LCD) will be brought under consideration as an international conference on LCD and Community Planning kicked off at the International Conference Centre Tuesday evening.
The conference focuses on Community Planning and Urban Development.
Mr. Michel Frojmovic of the Canadian Institute of Planners, pointed out that planning is all about collaborations and partnerships. He noted that the purpose of the conference was to bring together the global and high level policy with the practical work being done on the ground.
He hoped that the conference would be able to connect local practices to global initiatives in order to positively impact yet another aspect of the future that will have an impact on the Climate Change phenomenon.
The Conference will be a melding of academics and practitioners as they strive to address the issue of Urban Planning under the Low Carbon Development umbrella. Present will be representatives of the Caribbean Network for Urban and Land Management who will be collaborating with the University of Guyana under the EDULINK Project.
Meanwhile, the planning practitioners will be represented by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) as well as the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) operating under the auspices of the Canada-Guyana Partnership for Community Planning Project (C-GPCP).
Professor Lawrence Carrington, Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, noted that “each new instance of collaboration enriches our work. It allows us to cooperate with fresh partners and to work together to bring solutions to complex issues affecting our communities.”
He said that “approaching Community Development through the lens of Low Carbon Development is a sensible initiative that can hasten the shift of low carbon thinking from a planning mode into a lifestyle.”
President Bharrat Jagdeo, delivering the feature address, said that “we cannot just look at the global picture but need to consider the local ecosystem impact of our own actions as our prime motivation.”
The President added that recent talks have indicated that the Copenhagen Accord targets for emission reductions and a cap on global temperature rise are insufficient to achieve the safe zone that the world is aiming for.
He posited that if things continue this way the impending climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, may not develop the kind of accord that will avert a climate change disaster.
The President said that the economic straits of a number of European countries are forcing their attention away from truly addressing these issues at a global level. What this translates to is a lack of funding for developing countries to address climate change and its related phenomena.
“No Caribbean country today can exclude from its planning processes the huge challenges that are going to be posed by climate change and the horrendously expensive actions that we would have to take to mitigate some of the impact of climate change on our societies.”
He went on to say, “The sums are of the magnitude that goes beyond our capacity to handle, particularly in fragile budgets like we have now.”
As an example he pointed to the cost to do basic adaptations in five regions to have better flood control and water management would come to about US$1 B,” which the president indicated was some 50 per cent of Guyana’s GDP.
President Jagdeo added that there are changes that are coming regardless of how much the world reduces emissions by today considering the already high concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere.
As such he noted, “If we do not receive the assistance to fund some of these initiatives we will see a real loss in welfare because funds are going to have to be diverted away from education and healthcare and some of the other critical things that you need for the formation of social capital because you cannot ignore … the sea defences.”
The President spoke of the areas that the country is venturing into in terms of addressing the issue of climate change.
He identified the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project which is expected to begin construction within the year, as well as the expansion of the bio-fuel initiatives of the country along with the Norway deal that we have signed to prevent local deforestation.
These initiatives are emission reducing forays into what the President said were the three most significant causes of carbon emissions. These are energy generation through fossil fuels, transportation and deforestation.
He closed his presentation on the note that although the conference was a welcome initiative he hoped that they would look into planning at all levels, not just from a Low Carbon planning perspective but from others such as “common-sensical” planning in the layout of roads and canals.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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