Efforts to address global warming cannot be compartmentalised nor Balkanised

May 13, 2021 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The other day, I received a copy of Bill Gates’ new book; ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.’ It was sent to me compliments of a good friend of mine in the US. The book arrived the day after I read a story in mainstream media headlined, ‘Govt. has signed Letter of Intent to sell carbon credits.’
According to the newspaper story, President Ali announced that ‘Guyana recently signed a Letter of Intent with a US-based NGO to market and sell Guyana’s carbon credits to private companies around the world.’
The story went on to inform that; ‘This agreement has the potential of earning millions of US dollars annually’. For its part, the US-based NGO said it will act as an ‘intermediary between tropical-forest countries and the private sector to mobilise finance to support emissions reduction in deforestation’.
In his contribution to the launch of ‘Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest (LEAF)’ – a global finance coalition to bring together governments and private sector companies to provide finance for tropical and sub-tropical forest conservation…; Vice President Jagdeo is reported to have said, “…the eco-systems services provided by the world’s standing tropical forests … will enable people who live in forests and forest countries to create jobs and economic opportunity from an economy that works with nature instead of today’s reality where forests are often worth more dead than alive.”
Apprehensions in the newspaper’s story notwithstanding, the approach adopted by the Government of Guyana in this matter, struck me as one that any tropical forest-country, should pursue particularly in respect to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Moreover, notwithstanding the disastrous effects inherent in global warming, its shifting dynamics have resulted in opening a market that allows tropical forest countries to trade carbon credits in exchange for financial resources.
Although the observation made in the newspaper story, that the initiative should have been discussed with stakeholders, and that the process used to select the US-based NGO is questionable and merits a response, the bottom line is that from a developing country’s perspective, the initiative is progressive and augers well for Guyana’s future.
Reading Gates’ and the Government of Guyana’s visions together, it is not difficult to discern the contrasting views held, though the strategic objectives are the same in respect to harnessing greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding the disastrous consequences of global warming. The arguments advanced by Gates are of direct relevance to greenhouse gas emitting companies located within industrialised nations.
Gates recognises that industrialised countries first bear responsibility for tackling global warming even as emissions grow. In the meanwhile, governments in tropics forest countries have made a case to sell carbon credits to private companies in the five countries who produce the most carbon dioxide in the world.
For his part, Gates suggests that a climate disaster can be avoided by encouraging companies and their CEO’s in those countries to temper their greenhouse gas emissions by putting in place internal mechanisms and by investing more in research and development and other incentives. According to Gates, incentives can help avoid a climate disaster ‘… by making carbon free things cheaper and by making carbon-emitting things more expensive’.
Gates further suggests that ‘by progressively increasing the price of carbon to reflect true costs, governments can nudge producers and consumers towards more efficient decisions and encourage innovations that reduce ‘Green Premiums.’
Herein lies the dialectics of climate change. Governments in tropical forest countries want to take advantage of eco-services systems provided by their tropical forests as a means to mobilising resources for rapid development. In this regard, the Government of Guyana holds that jobs and economic opportunity can be created from the sale of carbon credits.

The solutions offered by Gates to the CEO’s of companies who keep adding green house gas to the atmosphere and who should take steps to avoid a climate disaster are to be found in a chapter of his book where he advances his ‘Plan for getting to zero.’
Whether the CEOs, their governments and other major players will accept his plan is another matter. The COP 26 Climate Change Conference scheduled for November this year in Glasgow in the UK will figure that one out. Gates’ case for avoiding a climate disaster dovetails with numerous solutions advanced by environmental economists. His suggestions, coupled with efforts of tropical forest countries can be positive within in a North/South cooperation partnership.
It is generally accepted that the perils of climate change and the avoidance of a climate disaster are global problems that require a global solution. Mr. Gates knows that. It follows therefore that mankind’s efforts to address global warming and the avoidance of a disaster cannot be compartmentalised nor Balkanised. A holistic approach is obviously the best way forward.
We live in a global village, and though Gates’ arguments as well as those advanced by the Government of Guyana follow a certain pattern, nevertheless, there is a clear divergence due to economies of scale and external policy initiatives.
Gates also discusses a ‘carbon tax or cap-and-trade programme.’ According to Gates, ‘There are various ways, including a carbon tax or cap-and-trade programme, to ensure that at least some of these external costs are paid by those who are responsible for them.’
More than twenty years ago, Cheddi Jagan in advancing his appeal for a New Global Order, called for a tax on greenhouse gas emissions or a pollution tax as a means of mobilising resources that would go towards the establishment of a Development Fund whose resources would be used to fight poverty in developing countries.
Jagan’s proposals have since evolved. A global market place now exists where carbon credits can be freely traded within the meaning of North/South cooperation thus facilitating a win-win situation. At the end of the day, avoiding a climate disaster and mitigating global emissions with a view to reaching carbon neutrality are mankind’s ultimate objectives.
Yours truly,
Clement J. Rohee

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