See below for a statement from President of GOGEC Manniram Prashad on Guyana’s Carbon Credit Deal with Hess Corp:
President of the Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber (GOGEC), Manniram Prashad, commends the Government of Guyana for yet another historic agreement signed with Hess for the purchase of 2.5 million credits per year for US$750 million from Guyana.
Despite Guyana is projected to ramp up oil production to approximately 1 million barrels per day by the end of the decade, Guyana will still enjoy a net negative position in terms of carbon emission.
The Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDs) 2030 sets out the vision for a low-carbon economy through low-carbon energy, employment and development opportunities, and investment in adapting to the impacts of climate change.
The average annual weather-related disaster losses in the last five to ten years in “low” and “lower-middle” income countries have reached US$1.3 billion and US$6.8 billion, respectively. Climate impacts undermine resilience and the capacity to recover and absorb losses from these events, especially that of poorer countries and their citizens, by reducing their agricultural productivity, weakening water and food security, increasing the incidence of diseases, and threatening the existing infrastructure, economic productivity, and value chains. More focus needs to be placed on the more vulnerable groups who are the victims suffering the most from the wrath of such catastrophes. This should not only be limited to sustainable development work to lift people out of poverty by economic empowerment through education, but countries also must divert investment into building climate resilient infrastructure.
In a broader framework, to move towards climate resilience, countries would need to design disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation strategies. The objective in so doing is to build climate-resilient economies while simultaneously developing creative financing solutions over the long term to be able to adequately respond to the financial and economic damages whenever such risks occur in member states.
Guyana’s expanded LCDs framework and this innovative carbon credit model is demonstrative of the Government’s stewardship in successfully leading in these respects.
