British High Comm., UG host informative Low Carbon forum

Jul 23, 2010 News

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The University of Guyana and the British High Commission have teamed up yet again in their efforts to make a Low Carbon Guyana a reality.
In another crossover event that brings the abstract into reality, the two organizations staged a Private Sector Forum yesterday afternoon at Pegasus hotel. The subject of the forum was “Low Carbon – High Growth: Opportunities for the Private Sector.”
Chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Lawrence Carrington, the programme featured presenters who represented academia, the energy and communications sectors and the investment arm of the Government.
Professor Carrington pointed out that the media’s reporting over the last few months has looked at the Low Carbon Development from more than one perspective.
He asserted that in the majority of cases the coverage has been under informed and strongly partisan.
He also noted that “the focus is more on fallout issues rather than the other aspects of the development strategy.
However the organizers of the forum have not forgotten these aspects and their focus is on showing the private sector that Low Carbon Development investment initiatives, though they may be long term in some cases, are not necessarily as risky as they appear.”
Speaking on behalf of the British High Commission, Mr. Simon Bond, the acting High Commissioner told of the United Kingdom’s domestic action on climate change.
He noted that the UK has been working on ‘de-carbonising’ their economy as they write carbon emission targets into law and they continue to press other European countries into meeting the standards for climate change mitigation as well.
He noted that change means new opportunities, it does not mean less profits, just profits from different areas or as a result of different practices.
Representing the University of Guyana, Director of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dr. Paulette Bynoe looked at the Economics of Climate Change.
She spoke on the reality of climate change and discussed the link between climate change and economic development.
In her presentation, she looked at the fact that many of the drivers of climate change are a consequence of ‘development’ –among them industrialization and transport. These drivers, she said, then cause the extreme weather events such as hurricanes and flooding which in turn leads to aggregate damage.
Repairing this damage and funding efforts to bring the cycle to a halt tends to take away funds from development bringing the issue full circle, Dr. Bynoe emphasised.
She pointed out that global investment is US$1trillion per year to ‘solve’ the climate change problem.
Dr. Bynoe also looked at the need for policy changes that will aid in adaption and mitigation of the current crisis.
The members of the private sector were given a new perspective by the CEO of the Guyana Energy Agency, Mahender Sharma, on energy efficiency.
Sharma looked at the energy needs and corresponding sources of energy production in the country. He took the opportunity to present real examples of energy efficient lights and the power consumption.
The Guyana Energy Agency set up demonstrations of regular incandescent light bulbs versus compact fluorescent lamps or CFLs (energy savers) that allowed forum participants to measure the current being used by each set up with special ammeters and see for themselves which items used more energy.
He noted that almost 30 percent of electricity charges were from lights. Most businesses tend to use Mercury Vapour Lamps for their outdoor lighting needs, Sharma explained, and he suggested replacing these with CFLs.
He presented the audience with a breakdown showing that replacing one lamp would result in savings of over $30,000 annually.
It was also demonstrated that replacing four feet fluorescent T12 lamps with their smaller, more energy efficient T8 cousins and replacing the traditional inductive ballasts with electronic ones would result in savings of $2,400 per year.
The amount he said was not that impressive, but when one considers that the average business uses dozens of these lamps in their ceiling lighting panels, the savings tend to add up.
Sharma also pointed out additional areas where businesses could reduce costs and cut down their impact on the environment at the same time.
Older electronics could be replaced with newer, more efficient models. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors could be replaced with Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) and desktop computers could be replaced with laptop computers.
He also examined several alternative energy sources, one in particular being the biogas digester. According to Sharma, the average cow produces 20kg of manure in one night; a 17 cubic metre biogas digester needs between 80 to 100kg of manure per day.
So with five cows a farmer can mix four buckets of manure and three buckets of water in the biogas digester to produce enough methane to cook for two families of five.
The forum closed with the members of the private sector and the panelists engaging in private discussions on the information imparted at the event.

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