Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 01, 2009 Editorial
It would appear that even with populist pressures to put actions to deal with climate change,adaptation precipitated by global warming on the back-burner (and rush full-speed ahead with their stimulus packages), the developed countries have accepted that the status quo cannot stand. Low-Carbon development has apparently become the order of the day.
Europe is in the throes of the second phase of its “Cap and Trade” regime, called an “Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)” that is designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to specified increasingly lower levels.
Under cap-and-trade, in general, the amount of carbon that companies can produce is “capped.” If they exceed that cap, they can purchase (“trade”) carbon allowances or permits on an open market, to cover the excess emissions.
In effect, producers or manufacturers that cheaply abate their emissions, can then sell their extra permits to other emitters that find the process more expensive. 2008, was a bumper year for the European Climate Exchange (ECX) and some 2.8billion tonnes of emissions were traded.
The Obama administration is committed to enacting its own “Cap and Trade” Bill this year, and one has been introduced this week in the US Congress by the Democrats. The Waxman-Markey bill, would mandate that U.S. emissions be cut by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
The mechanism has implications for countries such as Guyana, since under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), industrialised countries can invest in overseas low-carbon projects as a cheaper alternative to pursuing such schemes at home.
In addition to the efforts by the developed countries to reduce the levels of their offending emissions, there is of course, the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) initiative, that President Jagdeo has highlighted and championed during the past few years.
Since standing forests trap huge amounts of carbon dioxide both in their structures and in their photosynthetic activity, they contribute immensely to lessening the build-up of that gas in the atmosphere (acts as “carbon sinks). There is also, of course, the opportunity costs, lost in not exploiting those forests.
At the Bali Climate Change Conference last year, REDD activities was acknowledged as an integral means of reducing global warming and it is certain that at the Copenhagen meeting this December, to replace the Kyoto Protocol, it will receive significant funding.
As we pointed out in this space on several occasions, not as much as would have been deployed had not the financial meltdown kicked in, but it should still be significant, especially for small economies as ours. This funding, would be in addition to the opportunities available under the increased “Cap and Trade” programs.
We have long criticised the administration, for not establishing a strategic vision for our development and remaining mired in the passive Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, foisted by the IFI’s. This week, the OP announced that on June 8th, the President will unfold a strategy at the International Convention Centre to base the economy on low carbon development.
All stakeholders have been invited and the program will later be unveiled in all regions for debate and discussion culminating in the National Assembly.
We hope that everyone will utilise the occasion to make their opinions heard. Climate change demands a reworking of the basics of the political economy of development and underdevelopment, and going beyond rhetoric.
Our adaptation strategies and projects do not have to be restricted to passively receiving funds for “conservation of our forests”, but rather, can utilise our resources in a sustainable manner to create jobs and wealth for our people.
We are pleased that the state is prepared to take the agenda of our climate change adaptation, through development at the micro-level. It needed to be more active than the macro-economic incentive-based market-oriented economic change strategy, allowed up to now.
It needs to create state-society and state-individual synergies for its low-carbon development strategies. We hope that the business community will step up to bat.
JAGDEO ADDING MORE DANGER TO GUYANA AND THE REGION
Apr 18, 2024
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