Oil, Guyana and Climate Change...
plans that address the region’s food security issues which will be exacerbated by climate change. Guyana and Suriname have the resources to transform their agriculture sector into the sort of productive unit that could form the basis for supply to the Caribbean market. This can be done with support being given to Belize to carry out such similar transformation. With affordable energy available there can be a significant boost to food processing to support an expansion of the range of food products available for the regional market. Even at this moment there is an opportunity for Suriname and Guyana to consider joint ventures that would see Guyanese produce being processed in Suriname which has the cheapest source of energy in the region. We could also factor into this equation the installed manufacturing capacity in Trinidad and Tobago and taking the fertiliser facility out of moth balls. If we do the latter, we have a “local” source for a key input into our agriculture sector region wide and we can really speak of an endogenous food system in the Caribbean.
Thought should also be given to expanding this arrangement to our CARIFORUM partners who share our aspirations for low carbon and climate resilient growth and face the same challenges of short time frame and lack of resources to pursue these goals.
The climate change platform provides the Caribbean with an opportunity to truly realise some of the aspirations of the Treaty of Chaguaramas while at the same time through this Enhanced Cooperation Mechanism, facilitating and accelerating the region’s efforts to achieve a low carbon and climate resilient Caribbean. That way the oil economy of Guyana and Suriname would have contributed to the region’s timely transition to a carbon neutral Caribbean that is well fortified to meet the challenges of a changing climate. Guyana and Suriname can demonstrate one way in which poor developing countries can face the paradox of being a fossil fuel producer and at the same time espousing the tenets of the Paris agreement and the global imperative to achieve a zerocarbon world by 2050.