A strategy that contributes to mitigating Global Climate Change through carbon-neutral and carbon-sequestering economic activities should be added to the Draft Plan to build the resilience of the Caribbean to a changing climate, says Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud.

While speaking last Friday at the national consultation which was hosted at the Regency Suites/Hotel, Hadfield Street, the minister said that the plan can be regarded as passive if this was not done, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.

The consultation was held to allow various sectors of society to share ideas and positions on key issues related to climate change.
Minister Persaud said the consultation was an effort by the region to develop a harmonized approach to prepare a strategy to deal with the effects of climate change.

The document focuses on the mitigation of the impact of climate change, particularly on tourism, health, livelihood of tourist-intensive countries in the region and hurricanes, the minister noted.

He pointed out also that the document outlines planning for a reactive mechanism, and misses the opportunity to articulate how the Caribbean can effectively position itself to combat climate change from a global perspective while indicating several failures in the Guyana context.
Among these are: very little mention of the flooding hazards of climate change, and information available from the 2005 floods; Guyana’s ability to fight the impact of climate change in terms of the carbon stored in its standing forests, and the raging debate on the Jagdeo Initiative to extract funding from standard forests through the carbon trading markets is completely missing.

In addition, Guyana’s ability to address serious carbon sequestration through its agricultural activities and in particular bio-fuels and agro and forest-residue energy was not mentioned and its ability to address the carbon issues with regards to the production of secondary protein was also overlooked.

The Draft Plan was developed by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC).  The Caribbean region is recognized as being one of the most vulnerable regions to be affected by the adverse impacts of climate change.

It is expected that it will affect major sectors within the country negatively. As a result of this, GINA added, the country has taken major steps to address the issue through a number of key initiatives, including setting up of a National Climate Unit, establishment of a National Climate Committee, participation at regional and international initiatives aimed at addressing climate and implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation activities.