Guyana’s President –Guyana a world leader on climate change

President, Irfaan Ali on Tuesday reminded the world of Guyana’s contribution to the fight
against climate change. Ali made the statement at the opening of the International Energy
Conference and Expo being held at the Marriott hotel, Georgetown.
“Guyana is a world leader on climate change, eco-system and biodiversity,” the President said.
Ali disclosed that Guyana presents 18.3M hectares of standing forest covering 87 per cent of the
country’s land area, but noted that it is not a headline in any of the international press. “The
forest stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon worth conservatively US $195B… it provides the world
with fresh water. It contains four per cent of all known plant species in the world,” Ali pointed
out.
The President noted that the forest has more bird species than the United States and three per
cent of the known animal species in the world. He said that is part of the Guyana that hundreds
are visiting for the energy conference.“Our forest sector has an estimated value of US $500
billion. This presents tremendous opportunity for value added,” he said. Ali noted that more
importantly, Guyana’s monitoring, reporting and verification system is one of the best globally
with a deforestation rate of less than 0.05 per cent. “We can sustainably, based on the system that
was put in place, we can sustainably harvest one million cubic metres per year. At present we
harvest 400,000 cubic metres, valued at US $80M,” he stressed.
President Ali said Guyana’s forest presents opportunities for large scale downstream processing,
prefab housing, prime value-added species for niche market, partnering on environmental
services, reforestation programmes and forest plantations which are all linked to new emerging
and potential markets. The head of state further reminded those in attendance that Guyana’s
development trajectory is built on a Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). He noted that
Guyana has not changed its commitment to the world and called on countries within the region to
play their part. “We in this region and as developing countries must contribute to the global
solution. We have the capacity, we have the capability and we must now work together to find
our place and space in bringing global solutions,” he disclosed.
He noted that the energy conference, hosted under the theme ‘Charting a sustainable energy
future’ is the first of its kind to be held under the PPP/C administration. Present at the conference
were President of Ghana, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and H.E Chandrikapersad
Santokhi, President of Suriname, along with Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley. The
conference has also attracted hundreds of investors from around the world.