Jagdeo is back peddling faster than a Lamborghini in reverse

Oct 13, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – The main Opposition is on solid grounds in its criticisms of the last-minute consultations, engineered by the government, to decide on Guyana’s National Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.
As representatives of some of the people they have pointed out, the consultations which commenced on Monday are indeed a sham and far from the fair, open and equitable process that would have involved the genuine participation of Guyanese. The PPP/C had a long time to consult widely and properly on this matter but did not do so with the result, that it is in a last minute risk to bulldoze consultations down the throats of Guyanese.
National Determined Contributions (NDCs) are undertakings which each country agrees to in order to ensure the overall reduction of emissions under the Paris Agreement. Each country is required to state what it will do to reduce emissions, and these are deemed its NDCs.
The APNU+AFC representatives have justifiable reason to feel that the consultations are a charade. They describe the outcome as a fait accompli, meaning that the government has already decided what it plans to do and simply wants to rubber stamp it through these last-minute and rushed consultations.
In fact, the country’s Second Vice President, in an interview in last Sunday’s Stabroek News, made comments which his critics can justifiably claim to be prejudicial to the consultations. The country’s Vice President made statements indicating what the government is likely to do in terms of its NDCs. The Second Vice President went as far as even placing a price tag of US$1.6M on the assistance required.
In that interview, the Second Vice President said that the renewable energy NDC set by the APNU+AFC was wild and unrealistic. He said the new NDCs would likely see the halving of the 100 percent renewable energy target set by Granger.
The Granger administration had agreed to ‘near-100 percent’ (not 100 percent) renewable energy by 2025. This is clearly stated in the Green State Development Strategy. However, in its submission to the UNFCC, the APNU+AFC, said that it believed that “Guyana can develop a 100 percent renewable power supply by 2025 and that it would undertake an assessment of potential renewable energy sources, including an independent review of the Amaila Falls Project.
Jagdeo, however, has to be joking when he says that this was a wild and unrealistic target. It was not. He himself had touted the benefits of the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric towards Guyana’s renewable energy thrust and had said that had the APNU not prevented its implementation, it would have been completed in four years.
Amaila was Jagdeo’s pet project and the one which he felt held the greatest hope for Guyana’s renewable energy thrust. Jagdeo’s Low Carbon Development Strategy claimed that Amaila would enable Guyana “to switch from nearly 100 percent dependence on fossil fuel-based electricity generation to nearly 100 percent clean, renewable energy supplies.”
The LCDS therefore speaks about 100 percent clean, renewable energy supply. So how come this very target under Granger has become wild and unrealistic?
If Amaila is so transformational and could still be built by 2025 why is Jagdeo contending that 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 is unrealistic? Has he forgotten that the independent review undertaken by Norconsult found that the only realistic path for Guyana towards an emission free electricity sector is by developing its hydropower potential and the fastest way forward is to maintain Amaila?
Jagdeo is now changing his tune. He now wants to reduce the LCDS and Granger’s target by half. But why would he want to do this when he has the means to enable Guyana to have nearly 100 percent clean renewable energy?
He clearly does not understand the Paris Agreement. The agreement states that each successive NDC must improve on the previous contribution and reflect the country’s highest possible ambition. Granger’s ‘near-100 percent’ is and should remain the country’s highest possible ambition.
A 50 percent reduction is not a progression on the current contribution. And it is not Guyana’s highest possible ambition, especially considering that the LCDS had aimed, like Granger, for near-100 percent renewable energy.
But there is a reason why Jagdeo is back peddling. He does not want 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 or even 2030 because that would cancel out the need for the gas-to-shore project. Natural gas is not considered a clean or renewable energy source. Jagdeo is desperate for the gas-to-shore project, even though natural gas is not a renewable energy source. And, do you know why?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

 

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