Money from LCDS 2030 to be handled with highest transparency – Dr Singh

Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh has positioned that Government’s reintroduced and expanded Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 Bill is the gateway to earn for climate services offered by Guyana to the world.
Last month, the Bill was laid in the National Assembly by the Finance Minister following seven months of consultations.

During Monday’s sitting, Minister Singh debated, “The 2030 LCDS articulates a clear mechanism for mobilisation of resources for earning of revenue by our country and of course, the global context has also been changed. So, the LCDS has itself been updated and expanded to take account of those realities.”
Guyana can earn not just through arrangements like the one with Norway, but through an open-market arrangement. Like the initial LCDS, Dr Singh said the updated version “goes to the core” on justice and fairness.
“The reality is that forests are an extreme part and one of the most effective means in the global climate solution. From a global justice and fairness perspective, forests should and must be renumerated for the global climate services they’re providing.”
The Finance Minister has assured that monies earned through the LCDS will be processed through the highest level of accountability.
“We will ensure therefore that the revenues that we earn through the LCDS are processed through the most rigorous of accountability systems and be fully incorporated into the budgetary process,” he told the House.
The LCDS 2030 seeks to create a new low-carbon economy in Guyana by establishing incentives which value the world’s ecosystem services, and promote these as an essential component of a new model of global development with sustainability at its core. In Guyana’s case, it is about harnessing the value of the country’s ecosystem services to build a long-term, low-carbon diversification opportunity.
Guyana, along with a number of other countries, gave its full support at the United Nations 26th Conference of Parties (COP26), held in Glasgow, Scotland, to play its part in protecting against climate change.
In fact, over 130 leaders, representing more than 90 per cent of the world’s forests, have committed to work together to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 in the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use.
Countries have also committed to the funding pledge of US$12 billion between 2021 and 2025 to finance forest-related matters.
The LCDS was first launched on June 8, 2009, with the revised version being published in May 2010. This version was subsequently launched in March 2013. The new draft is intended to continue and build upon the work started in 2008.
Between the period of 2009 to 2015, Guyana earned US$212.52 million in forest service payments from Norway, to be invested in the LCDS. This has created low-carbon jobs; enabled Amerindian villages to receive legal titles for communal lands; rehabilitated the Cunha Canal to protect against flooding; and started to equip Amerindian and hinterland communities with renewable energy, digital infrastructure, and sustainable livelihood opportunities. (G12)