Norway is prepared to provide performance-based, “substantial and sustained” compensation for the progress Guyana makes in limiting emissions from deforestation and further decreasing forest degradation.

A joint statement following a meeting between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Oslo on Tuesday and posted on the Norwegian Prime Minister’s Website said that the two countries pledged to establish closer cooperation on climate and forest issues. Jagdeo was in that country to discuss those topics and the two leaders agreed to establish a partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. The goal is to establish mechanisms on deforestation and forest degradation to be included in a post-2012 climate change agreement, the Prime Minister’s website said.

The joint statement said the bilateral co-operation will be founded on a broad-based, transparent, inclusive, multi-stakeholder national strategy developed in Guyana. Crucial components will be the creation of low-carbon employment and investment opportunities in Guyana, sustained efforts to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, strengthening open, transparent forest governance, and establishing an international monitoring, reporting, and verification system for Guyana’s forests.

A financial mechanism run by a reputable international organization will be set up through which performance based compensation can be channelled to implement Guyana’s low-carbon development strategy, the statement said.

Norway has been in the forefront of the battle against climate change and last year committed up to US$1B by 2015, to Brazil’s Amazon Fund, with the amount distributed contingent on Brazil’s success in reducing deforestation. It was stated that Norway would have contributed about US$20M to the Amazon Fund, while contributions for this year will increase to about US$120M. The country also last year pledged 50 million pounds to the Congo Basin Forest Fund, which is aimed at preserving the rainforest in the Congo Basin, and had stated that it was prepared to grant Norwegian Krone 500 million to Tanzania over the next five years, for a partnership agreement to enhance forest and climate efforts. Stoltenberg had also announced at the Bali Conference on climate change that Norway is prepared to increase its support to prevent deforestation in developing countries to around US$600M per year.

While the amount that Guyana could potentially receive was not stated, the statement noted that the two countries will work together, both on climate change issues in general and on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in particular and Norway is prepared to provide performance-based, substantial and sustained compensation for the progress Guyana makes in limiting emissions from deforestation at low levels and further decreasing forest degradation. “In cooperation with Guyana and its multilateral partners, this will include contributing to the development and implementation of the necessary strategies and reforms, capacity building, and developing, funding and implementing suitable low-carbon and adaptation investments”, the statement said.

The two countries have agreed that they, and with other interested parties, will work to ensure the establishment of a comprehensive REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) mechanism under the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) post-2012 climate change agreement to be agreed in Copenhagen in December this year.

President Jagdeo had in December unveiled Guyana’s position on avoided deforestation and had argued that the REDD mechanism must back compensatory economic alternatives which, based on calculations, could be worth US$580M per annum to this country. The president in the last few years has lobbied intensively for compensation for standing forests. In 2007 he announced that almost all of the country’s forests would be made available in the fight against climate change and discussions had ensued with the UK over how such a proposal could be monetized. There have also been small eco-services arrangements between the Iwokrama rainforest project and two entities.

Meantime, the statement noted that the Guyanese-Norwegian bilateral cooperation will support ongoing multilateral initiatives. The UN REDD Programme will be crucial, as will the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and UN, World Bank and European Union efforts on forest law enforcement, governance and trade issues, as well as international efforts to support the development of low carbon economies world-wide, according to the statement.

The two countries agreed on the need to keep climate change firmly at the top of the international agenda noting that it is essential to reach an ambitious agreement in Copenhagen in December. They agreed that if the world is to prevent irreversible climate change, it is essential that greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation are drastically reduced, given that deforestation and forest degradation currently cause about one fifth of the global emissions.

According to the statement, to achieve this vital objective, they agreed that determined and concerted action is needed and emphasized that efforts under the UNFCCC towards REDD, must be properly designed to ensure that deforestation is significantly reduced in countries where it is already occurring, and avoided in countries where deforestation rates are still low.

“Relevant efforts could include results based, adequate, predictable and sustainable financial compensation – to be ultimately determined through future UNFCCC negotiations – from developed countries to developing countries for their REDD efforts. Such compensation would provide funding for a shift away from forest-dependent employment and income generation, towards support for the creation of low carbon development and low deforestation economies”, the statement said. (Gaulbert Sutherland)