Norway should be shown the door

Sep 12, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Guyana should do no business ever with Norway. The mere possibility of re-entering a deal with Norway concerning our forests or carbon credits would be an affront to the dignity of Guyana.

We ought to recall with precision and clarity the bitter experience of the last such arrangement—an exercise in the infantilization of a sovereign state, dressed up in the polite language of partnership. The Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), initially heralded as a groundbreaking model of cooperation between a developing nation and an environmentally-conscious donor, has proven to be a Trojan horse, wheeled into our halls by none other than the former President Bharrat Jagdeo.

For those who have forgotten, the arrangement was simple: Guyana, rich in forests but poor in cash, would keep its trees standing and Norway, rich in cash but poor in tropical trees, would pay us for the carbon we didn’t emit. It was a bargain that seemed to combine enlightened environmentalism with the promise of economic development. A match made in heaven, we were told. Except, the actual experience was nothing short of humiliating, a classic case of a colonial subject supplicating before its overlord, hat in hand, asking permission to use its own resources.

The indignity reached its nadir in June of 2011 when Jagdeo himself, the architect of this grand scheme, was forced to admit that the flow of funds from Norway, which Guyana had ostensibly “earned,” had become a bureaucratic nightmare. Not only was the money slow to arrive—when it arrived at all—it was subject to a byzantine system of oversight, primarily at the hands of the World Bank. The funds managed by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), effectively stripped Guyana of its rightful control over funds it had supposedly earned. Jagdeo, normally poised and diplomatic, could barely contain his frustration. “This is our money,” he declared emphatically, “It’s not the World Bank’s money, it is not the IDB’s money.”

Jagdeo’s outburst, while understandable, was years too late. By then, the defects of the  arrangement had already been exposed.

The hypocrisy was staggering. Norway, with its booming oil industry, was paying Guyana to keep its forests standing, all the while contributing to global emissions at home. And the funds that were supposed to boost Guyana’s low-carbon trajectory? Tied up in endless red tape, delayed, and ultimately reduced to a trickle. What was sold as a new model of international cooperation quickly devolved into a humiliating reminder of the global pecking order. The sovereign state of Guyana found itself at the mercy of a handful of technocrats and faceless international institutions, while Norway sat on the sidelines, posturing as a benevolent benefactor.

The Coalition government, which succeeded Jagdeo’s administration, fared no better. The funds remained elusive, and Norway’s position was clear: disbursements were not automatic. As if to remind us of our place in the world, Norway indicated that their generosity was contingent upon our compliance with a host of conditions. It was a relationship that had long ceased to be one of equals, if indeed it ever was. By the time the Coalition government took stock of the situation, it became abundantly clear that Norway’s promises were as hollow as the tropical trees they claimed to be protecting.

It’s time we called this arrangement what it truly was: a thinly veiled exercise in neocolonialism. For years, Guyana has been treated as a laboratory for the whims of well-meaning environmentalists in the Global North—Norwegian officials who, despite their environmental credentials, have little understanding of the complexities of development in a country like ours. They offer grand promises of money in exchange for conservation, yet withhold the funds, tying them up in labyrinthine conditions that serve only to reinforce their control over our resources.

The humiliation must end. Guyana is no longer a nation that needs to beg for scraps in exchange for keeping our forests intact. The global market for carbon credits is evolving, slowly but still evolving. Guyana now has more options than ever before for leveraging our natural resources, and it is high time we acted like it. The days of ceding control of our forests to foreign interests, whether they come dressed as colonial masters or well-meaning environmentalists, must end.

Norway should be politely, but firmly, shown the door. They are no longer needed in Guyana. In fact, they never were. We must resist the temptation to see them as our environmental saviours; they are merely another actor in a long history of exploiters. Guyana’s future lies not in bowing to the whims of external powers, but in asserting its sovereignty and making deals that are in the best interests of its people. The Low Carbon Development Strategy, for all its noble intentions, has failed to deliver on its promises precisely because it was premised on the notion that Guyana needed Norway more than Norway needed Guyana. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If we are serious about charting a low-carbon development path, let us do so on our own terms, without the paternalistic oversight of foreign donors. Let us manage our forests, our carbon credits, and our future in a way that benefits our people—not in a way that enriches consultants and satisfies the egos of bureaucrats in distant capitals. The time for begging is over. Guyana deserves better, and it’s time we acted like it.

(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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• heralded, Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), Norway, Peeping Tom, President Bharrat Jagdeo

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