Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 09, 2008 Editorial
Last Friday, President Jagdeo presented a position paper, ‘Creating Incentives to Avoid Deforestation’ in which he asserted that the “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation” (REDD) mechanism could be a boon to countries like Guyana, with standing forests.
Delegates meeting at the U.N. climate conference a year ago in Bali had agreed to include forest conservation in future discussions on a new global warming treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
In a very optimistic vein, the President presented figures which showed that our country could possibly earn billions annually, based on lost opportunity costs forgone in keeping our forests pristine.
President Jagdeo has been an early proponent of the mechanism – even before Bali – which, while it does not actually reduce emissions that lead to global warming, does provide a trap for generated carbon in the forests left standing.
The mechanism is not without its critics for several reasons. In an editorial just after the Bali meeting, we pointed out: While programs such as “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation” (REDD) will address environmental degradation by assigning value to intact ecosystems like rainforests (and thus help countries like us by giving us dollars for preserving our forests) the main issue cannot be avoided – reducing fossil fuel emissions .
The US has voiced “serious concerns” over the provisions of the Bali Roadmap and complained that it did not do enough to commit countries like India and China to big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Fundamentally, both the developed countries – especially the US, and the developing countries – especially China and India – will have to agree on emission reduction targets or the Bali Roadmap may end up leading us into disaster.
President Jagdeo is attempting, as is his obligation, to secure possible benefits for our present abundance of forests, by demonstrating that the country is foregoing an amount roughly equal to our annual GDP by not exploiting that resource.
However, if the truth be told we have not actually been attracting the horde of investors that would spin those trees into gold as the opponents of the REDD approach would have it.
And this is part of the problem with the expansion of the REDD initiative: the wealthy countries have been more willing to pay countries who have long been ravishing their forests to now slow down.
As the President has pointed out, this is a rather “perverse” state of affairs since Guyana’s case for compensation would have been easier if we had been burning our forests into the ground. After Bali, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) was launched by the World Bank with several developed countries (not including the US) contributing US$160M.
It was expected to build the capacity of developing countries in the tropical and sub-tropical regions to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and tap into a future system of positive incentives for REDD.
Guyana was among thirty countries from Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region that were eligible to make use of the facility. However, after Bali, REDD has not exactly taken the world over by storm.
On the same day that President Jagdeo made his presentation and informed stakeholders that he would submit it to a meeting in Poland (already in progress as COP14) a participant to those talks, John O. Niles, director of the Tropical Forest Group complained: “Despite a clear mandate from the Bali Action plan to develop new policies to stem tropical deforestation, COP14 has not devised a clear plan to develop specific solutions.”
More pertinent to our case he pointed out: “”For instance, there is no assurance on the table that countries that stop deforestation now won’t be penalized down the road,” he said, referring to the risk that countries with effective conservation policies and low deforestation rates will not see the compensation that high deforestation countries will receive.
“There is also not a clear mandate to take up the issue of REDD in the UN body developing future mitigation policies.”
While we wish the President all success in his trip to COP14, we must not raise our hopes too high in a jaded world economy more concerned with stimulating production than adding what are usually seen as “burdens” to that cost.
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
Apr 25, 2024
By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – The French Diplomatic Office in Guyana, in collaboration with the Guyana Olympic Association and UNICEF, hosted an exhibition on Tuesday evening at the...Kaieteur News – Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, persists in offering... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]