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Norway meets with Guyana on new forest deal
From left: Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman; Finance Minister, Winston Jordan; Director of the Government of Norway Climate and Forest Initiative Per Fredrick Ilsaas Pharo; President David Granger; Marianne Johansen; Minister of State Joseph Harmon and Advisor on the Environment, Gary Best, shortly before the meeting.
A high level team from Norway yesterday met with Government, with the five-year-old multi-billion-dollar forest agreement discussed. The agreement is set to expire in just over two months, with Guyana likely to opt for a renewal.
Meeting with President David Granger was Director of the Government of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative, Per Fredrik Ilsaas.
Also attending the were Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman; Finance Minister, Winston Jordan; Marianne Johansen; Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, and Advisor on the Environment, Gary Best.
In November 2009, Guyana and Norway signed a ground-breaking US$250M to preserve forests as part of a scheme to slow climate change.
Norway, which has led donor nations in slowing tropical deforestation with a budget of 3 billion Norwegian crowns (US$530 million) a year, said it had wanted to help Guyana maintain forests that cover 75 percent of its land.
“Saving the world’s remaining tropical forests is a crucial element in the battle against climate change,” Norwegian Environment Minister Erik Solheim said of a memorandum he signed in Guyana.
Under the programme, Guyana is supposed to implement measures to slow deforestation rates.
Norway, earlier this year, in the face of early elections in Guyana, had halted up to US$40M in payments, representing amounts from 2013.
Five days before the election, Norway had announced its decision to pay the US$40 million (NOK 300 million) to Guyana for avoided deforestation during 2013, bringing total Norwegian payments to US$190 million.
The timing had raised questions. Political Advisor of Norway’s Climate Ministry, Jens Frølich Holter, denied that Norway had any intention of influencing the election outcome.
“The decision on the disbursement was made and was announced in accordance with normal procedures,” he told the daily Bergens Tidende.
Payments made under the US$250M Guyana/Norway forest deal.
Norway’s new agencies reported that key elements of the deal were being re-assessed.
“It is now up to the new government of Guyana whether they still want to go forward with the Low Carbon Development Strategy,” Elisabeth Brinck Sand at the Norwegian Climate Ministry had said then.
Under the US$250M deal, Guyana had earmarked almost US$100M for the Amaila Falls Hydro-Electric project. That project is stalled as the new Government says it is too expensive.
At the beginning of this year, Norway disbursed US$80 million to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as equity for Amaila Falls, in recognition of Guyana’s avoided deforestation during 2011 and 2012.
Brinck Sand confirms that the latest US$40 million payment will not be disbursed until the new government’s position on the low-carbon strategy is known. “Until [the status of the strategy] has been discussed between our two governments, the funds for the 2013 results will not be disbursed,” Brinck Sand says.
So far, only about 16 per cent of the US$190 million in funds for Guyana – US$31 million – have actually been disbursed for projects on the ground. The rest sits in accounts in Washington – at the IDB (for Amaila Falls) and in a World Bank-managed fund known as the GRIF.
As the accompanying table shows, the disbursement schedule has been anything but smooth.
After 2011, Norway failed to disburse any money for three years – 2012, 2013 and 2014 – partly because of uncertainty surrounding the Amaila Falls project.
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