Bharrat Jagdeo does not get it!

Nov 06, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Second Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, hosted an extended press conference this past week, ostensibly to respond primarily to criticisms levelled against the government by former President, David Granger. Had Jagdeo taken the time to carefully assess Granger’s criticisms, he could have saved himself and the press corps the agony of his almost two-and-a-half-hour diatribe.
The former President and leader of the PNC/R, David Granger had been critical of the last-minute consultations into the revised Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), mindful that it is this strategy which ought to inform Guyana’s commitments at COP26. Further, the PNC/R had lambasted the government for the rushed attempt at consultations over the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which every country is required to make as part of its revised ambitions under the Paris Agreement.
By no stretch of the imagination could former President David Granger be implying that the LCDS has to be presented at COP26. But what he certainly implied was that the LCDS, as the country’s environmental/development strategy, must be the basis for the NDCs and Guyana’s presentation at the conference.
But instead of having the expanded LCDS completed in time for COP26 so as to inform Guyana’s NDCs, the PPP/C on the eve of the conference launched consultations on the document. This meant that the country’s representatives were going to COP26 without the benefit of a completed LCDS and without finalising its NDCs.
Jagdeo continues to harp on the fact that the APNU+AFC had set an unrealistic target of near 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. But he fails to inform the public that this NDC was part of a conditional contribution and is recorded in the official document which Guyana submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He also failed to concede that in his original LCDS there was reference to near 100 percent renewable electricity.
He also claims that since there were no announced projects to enable the 100 percent target to be met, it was unrealistic. But he forgets that a process of conversion had begun to power government buildings with solar power which is now the cheapest source of renewable energy.
Private businesses also had begun to use solar power. Kaieteur News utilises solar power to power some of its operations as does some other business entities.
While it would have taken some doing to move Guyana to anywhere close to 100 percent renewable energy, it is not true to say that APNU+AFC did not have any projects in mind to meet its target. It did.
In fact, the government had committed to making public the report by Norconsult on the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project. But the groundwork had been laid since 2017 for the transition towards renewable energy development. In that year, the then Minister of Finance announced concessions for hybrid and electric vehicles. Today, thousands of electric motorcycles are on the roads and selling at an affordable price.
Other concessions were also granted to encourage the use of renewable energy. The APNU+AFC offered tax concessions for the establishment of electric charging stations.
In the 2017 Budget, it set aside $1B for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. The PPP/C now hardly talks about energy efficiency.
The APNU+AFC may not have had the same drive as the PPP/C has today. But it is the same studies which the APNU+AFC did in respect to bringing gas-to-shore that the PPP/C is using to justify its gas-to-shore project from the Stabroek Block to Wales.
The APNU+AFC also had a number of much smaller renewable energy plans. These included, establishing a solar farm at Mabaruma and the restoration of the Moco Moco Hydroelectric facility.
Jagdeo therefore has his facts all tangled up. The target of near-100 percent renewable energy was ambitions but we do not know for sure what the APNU+AFC would have been able to achieve between 2020 and 2025 given the resources which are now available to the country.
What we do know is that despite claiming at the United Nations that Guyana would be a global leader on climate change, the President went to COP26 without NDCs and without the benefit of a finalised LCDS.
Jagdeo must answer for this delinquency. Seeing that he holds responsibility for the environment and for the oil and gas sector, and given the foul-ups with the oil expenses’ audit and with the NDCs, the President may now wish to determine whether the time is ripe for a review of Jagdeo’s on-the-job performance.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

---

---