Seeking to achieve climate, environmental and economic change, the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) hosted its National Energy Forum at the International Conference Centre, Liliendaal on Friday with students from across the country in attendance.
The forum, which is one of the activities planned to celebrate Energy Week 2015, encouraged high school students to use energy efficiently and to join the fight against climate change. Video clips to encourage persons to turn off lights and switches when they are not at home as well as clips on the use of solar power and using buses and bicycles instead of their own vehicles, were displayed.
Presentations were also made on the Low Carbon Development Strategy and the role of education in combating climate change and achieving sustainability.
Last year, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) reported that surging carbon dioxide levels have pushed greenhouse gases to a record high in the atmosphere. Concentrations of the gas, the major cause of global warning, in the atmosphere in 2013 rose at their fastest rate since 1984. Scientists have insisted on the need to cut emissions in order to stop rising atmospheric temperatures but concentrations continued to rise. The latest WMO annual greenhouse bulletin, which was released in 2014, showed that in 2013, concentrations of the gas were up 142% of what they were prior to the Industrial Revolution.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds called on Guyanese to become more efficient in energy use and also to take account of carbon-based energy. He said there is a need to pay attention to climate change and the challenges it poses. Hinds said people have been putting more carbon dioxide into the air and it has been increasing the threat to life.
“There is a threat to life and we are challenged,” he said, adding that everyone should come together to minimize the “carbon footprint” of the country. He added that the youths make up the generation that will have to battle global warning, and it therefore, merits their attention now. Chief Executive Officer of the GEA Dr. Mahender Sharma said the agency has a mandate to create awareness on energy conservation and he hoped that the forum would ignite some consciousness within the students to help create a change. “If you really don’t do it, we would have achieved nothing,” he said.
