President Ali receives prestigious Latin America Wilson Centre Award

– Recognised for his remarkable leadership in climate change action, biodiversity

President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has been honoured with the prestigious Wilson Award from the Latin America Wilson Centre for his outstanding leadership in climate change action and biodiversity conservation.

The award was presented during a Gala and Dinner held in Miami, attended by several world leaders. The award, part of the Wilson Center’s Latin America Programme, recognises leaders who have made significant contributions to regional and global advancement, particularly in fields such as sustainability, biodiversity, and climate change.

President Ali received the award from Benjamin Gedan, the Director of the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program.

In a keynote address, President Ali emphasised Guyana’s exceptional role in preserving its vast forests and biodiversity—two critical ecosystem services.

He underscored the importance of a global economic model that values and sustains these vital assets, highlighting Guyana as home to one of the world’s highest concentrations of biodiversity.

This achievement is particularly significant given that 60 per cent of global biodiversity has already been lost.

“As much as we have been able to keep this intact, as well as the forests, we also recognisse the fact there must be an economic model to support the biodiversity and the standing forests that we are keeping alive.

…that global model must be able to put a value on these important global assets, and a proper pricing and market mechanism must be developed to value these assets. Otherwise, we will not be doing this in a sustainable way,” he underlined.

This focus is integral to countries like Guyana, as they are mandated to address the economic and social needs of its population, where over 80 per cent live below sea level.

Recognising this, Guyana along with like-minded countries have been extensively advocating for the establishment of a fair mechanism to value environmental services.

In line with this vision, President Ali highlighted Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 as a global model, balancing economic growth with environmental preservation. 

Under this strategy, Guyana achieved several, including the issuance of the world’s first jurisdictional carbon credit under the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) mechanism in 2022. This led to the historic sale of US$7450 million in carbon credits, with 15 per cent of these funds directly allocated to the development of indigenous communities.

Furthermore, according to the president, Guyana’s progress also includes expanding its timber industry, advancing mineral mapping for sustainable mining, and transitioning towards renewable energy.

“This will allow miners to continue their business sustainably and open up possibilities for exploration of critical minerals, including lithium, which is becoming increasingly important to the global economy,” President Ali underscored.

He also stressed the need for leaders to unite and craft common policies to address global climate challenges, underscoring the need for shared vision and collaboration.

President Ali said he is working along with Former President of Columbia Iván Duque, to launch a Global Biodiversity Alliance, with plans already in place to host the first Biodiversity Summit with Concordia next year in Guyana.

“Let us all continue to work in service of humanity, in building a just global system, in building a system in which peace, justice, democracy, and the rule of law will prevail and must prevail above everything else,” he urged

Meanwhile, he expressed his deep gratitude to the Wilson Centre for its work in promoting democracy and the rule of law, underscoring the importance of such organisations in addressing the region’s challenges.