Remaining Norway money to finance ‘hope canal’ type projects—Dr Singh

Jan 28, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Guyana and Norway back in 2009 inked an agreement under which it would earn up to US$250M for carbon services provided, some of which was uplifted and expended on various projects.

Guyana and Norway back in 2009 inked an agreement under which it would earn up to US$250M for carbon services provided

The remaining funds yet to be uplifted, will this year, according to Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, will be used this year to fund several ‘Hope Canal type projects. According to Dr. Singh in his more than five hours long presentation, “…alongside the requisite institutional strengthening, the majority of this sum will be invested in building out major new outfall channels in Regions 5 and 6, similar to the Hope Canal, to strengthen our climate resilience.”

To this end, he pointed out, “…this final allocation of the amount earned through the Guyana-Norway partnership means that this year will see the first phase of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy draw to a close. When combined with investment income, he pointed out that “this totals just around US$54M.”

He said, “it also means that Guyana can now pivot away from catching up and repairing damage, and instead we can refocus on a vision for the future.” Prefacing his announcement with regards the use of the last of the funding from Norway, Dr Singh noted that as a new oil and gas producer, it becomes doubly important for Guyana to maintain and demonstrate “our strong global credentials on climate issues.”

Dr Singh used the occasion to remind that at the heart of the original LCDS, “was a mechanism to monetise the value of forest climate services, under which Guyana was eligible to earn up to US$250 million through a partnership with the Government of Norway.” He lamented however, “regrettably, during the period 2015 to 2020, over US$135 million of those revenues, well over half of what had been earned, was ignored and left unallocated.” Other programmes, he said, that had started before 2015 slowed down and effectively stopped. “Since resuming office, the task of repairing these failures and recovering from the lost years has begun,” he boasted that in Budget 2021, we unblocked over US$85 million of the US$137 million that had been left unallocated.”

To this end, he said work resumed on solar energy, Amerindian land titling, ICT access for the hinterland, and sustainable land management projects funded through the GRIF.
“The benefits of all these investments will fully materialise over the course of this year and early 2023 and these benefits will last long into the future, bringing economic and social benefit to tens of thousands of Guyanese,” according to Dr Singh.

Having pointed out that this tranche would represent the last to be had from the Norway Agreement, Dr Singh used the occasion to reference the expanded version of the initiative—LCDS 2030. This, he said, has at its core, Integrating Guyana’s forest climate services with emerging global carbon markets; Supporting Guyana’s economic transformation through cleaner, cheaper energy; Investing in adaptation to climate change and building resilience, so that the extreme impacts of floods, droughts and other weather events can be lessened in the future; and contributing to the global effort to address climate change and biodiversity loss, both in terms of managing our natural resources responsibly as integration with carbon markets advances, and in terms of responsible stewardship of our oil and gas sector also.

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