What is the problem with lobbying for climate change funds?

Dec 12, 2009 Letters

Dear editor,
What is the problem with lobbying for climate change funds? Mr. Kissoon’s column of December 11, 2009 in the Kaieteur News abounds with coarse rhetoric.
President Bharrat Jagdeo’s international schedule seems to be irking some people. The dynamics of a global village scenario impose the need for intensive interactions on matters of State of great and urgent importance. Some people need to remind themselves of the President’s demanding international advocacy efforts in these areas:
• Lobbying for a transformation of the international financial architecture
• Lobbying for climate change funds
• Lobbying for a better Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) deal
• Lobbying for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from non-traditional avenues.
And President Jagdeo is no ‘Johnny come lately’ in his bid to secure climate change funds. This is a genuine attempt by the President to make funds available to this country through his Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), inter alia.
The Guyana Government’s climate change proposal continues to receive support from the British Government, and vis-à-vis the British multiplier effect on the European Union. The EU and the British Government recently committed $3.6 billion and £1.5 billion, respectively, to climate change funds at the current COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The Jagdeo Initiative on Climate Change continues to receive considerable international coverage and acceptance through Britain’s Independent News, BBC, and Sky News; and also at the Bali Conference.
The British Independent newspaper called the Jagdeo Initiative “a groundbreaking step in the battle against climate change.” Prime Minister of Great Britain Gordon Brown spoke at the Bali Conference about carbon having a price and carbon saving producing a great deal of money; and calls for supporting developing countries and emerging economies in this regard.
President of the Heinz Centre for Science, Economics and the Environment Thomas Lovejoy, commenting on Jagdeo’s climate change proposal, stated that “…It would help the climate change challenge, forests and biodiversity. In President Jagdeo’s formulation, it addresses poverty and sustainable development as well…”
In his address at the 2007 Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting (CFMM) at the National Cultural Centre, President Jagdeo spoke expansively on climate change. He noted that Guyana would enter a bilateral or a similar-type relationship with people who accept Guyana’s vision of sustainable development.
Jagdeo in March this year, restated Guyana’s position on Avoided Deforestation at the Forest Carbon Finance Summit 2009: Making Forest Carbon Markets Work, on Capitol Hill, Washington DC; discussions focused on forest carbon compliance; infrastructure needs & legal and institutional framework, and integrity in forest carbon markets.
To reach these heights in lobbying for climate change funds requires an active international schedule. And what is the problem with lobbying for compensated conservation for rainforests? I will address the other issues later.
Prem Misir

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