Oil, Guyana and Climate Change...
building climate resilience. The CRSAP Strategy also provided a roadmap for five years; a summary of Project Concept Notes (PCNs) for four priority climate resilience programmes which can now be developed into full proposals and submitted for funding; a summary of the most significant climate risks and required resilience actions across fifteen key sectors; a set of capacity building actions that enhance Guyana’s capacity for national adaptation planning and becoming climate resilient to be undertaken within the next five years; and most importantly a strategy to finance the CRSAP. It noted that significant resources will be required to build resilience in Guyana including through the implementation of the CRSAP - up to US$ 1.6 billion in the period to 2025. That level of funding is not readily available to countries like ours.
To deliver the Strategy, an Action Plan was prepared which includes the Project Concept Notes (PCNs), as well as results of the climate change vulnerability and risk assessment and identification of resilience actions in the form of fifteen sectoral briefing notes. The four priority areas identified in the PCNs were, Building Climate Resilient Agricultural Systems; Guyana’s Sea Defence Enhancement and Maintenance; Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change; and Strengthening Drainage and Irrigation Systems. Both the PCNs and the fifteen sectoral briefing notes can be used to further develop, finance and implement resilience actions.
I mention these accomplishments to emphasise that we do have the information on which to act and we now have the possibility of providing the resources in a timely manner to implement actions that would protect Guyanese from the inevitable impacts of climate change. Can we use the platform of building national climate resilience to join hands across the political and ethnic divide that separate us, and build a country that is climate resilient, prosperous, democratic and free? Surely, securing the safety of our population, the integrity of our physical space, the protection of our livelihoods and way of life, providing all Guyanese with the confidence of a bright and secure future are issues that should transcend political and racial divisions in our society. We are running out of time and the time for action is now. Oil revenue properly invested can provide us with the opportunity to accelerate our progress towards building a low carbon and climate resilient Guyana that will allow us to accomplish whatever our final obligations would be for the attainment of zero carbon growth globally by 2050. Martin Carter had nothing like climate change in mind when he penned the University of Hunger, but the opening stanza does clearly depict the reality of today’s global experience;
“Twin bars of hunger mark their metal brows, Twin seasons mock them.
Parching drought and flood”.
Think droughts in Africa, forest fires in California, Seattle, Spain, Siberia, flash floods in Mexico, Germany, China, hurricane in Oman.
We will all be impacted by climate change: Like a jig shakes the loom.
Like a web is spun the pattern all are involved! all are consumed