Guyana a world leader on climate change – President Ali

President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Tuesday reminded the world of Guyana’s contribution to the fight against climate change. President Ali made the statement at the opening of the International Energy Conference and Expo being held at the Marriott hotel, Georgetown.

The President in his address stated that, “Guyana is a world leader on climate change, eco-system and biodiversity.”

He noted that Guyana presents 18.3 million hectares of standing forest covering 87 per cent of the country’s land area, but noted that it is not a headline in any of the international press.

“The forest stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon worth conservatively US $195 billion… it provides the world with fresh water. It contains four per cent of all known plant species in the world,” the President highlighted.

He added that the forest has more bird species than the United States and three per cent of the known animal species in the world. He said that is part of the Guyana that hundreds are visiting for the energy conference.

“Our forest sector has an estimated value of US $500 billion. This presents tremendous opportunity for value added.”

More importantly, the president said, Guyana’s monitoring, reporting and verification system is one of the best globally with a deforestation rate of less than 0.05 per cent.

“We can sustainably, based on the system that was put in place, we can sustainably harvest one million cubic metres per year. At present we harvest 400,000 cubic metres, valued at US $80 million,” the President added.

Additionally, the Head of State said Guyana’s forest presents opportunities for large scale downstream processing, prefab housing, prime value-added species for niche market, partnering on environmental services, reforestation programmes and forest plantations which are all linked to new emerging and potential markets.

President Ali further reminded those in attendance that Guyana’s development trajectory is built on a Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). He noted that Guyana has not changed its commitment to the world and called on countries within the region to play their part.

“We in this region and as developing countries must contribute to the global solution. We have the capacity, we have the capability and we must now work together to find our place and space in bringing global solutions,” President Ali stated.

The energy conference, hosted under the theme ‘Charting a sustainable energy future’ is the first of its kind to be held under the PPP/C administration.

Present at the conference were President of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and H.E Chandrikapersad Santokhi, President of Suriname, along with Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley. The conference has also attracted hundreds of investors from around the world.