A motion piloted recently by PNCR-1G MP James McAllister will see Parliament’s
Natural Resources Sectoral Committee examining the setting up of a National Commission on Climate Change and submitting its recommendation in one year.
The motion, amended from the original format, sought also to have the recently reconstituted National Climate Committee submit half-yearly reports. McAllister had originally called for the setting up of a broad-based climate change commission.
Speaking on the motion, Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy challenged the US Government to step up and take the lead in providing funding to countries to adapt to the changes that are to come. He said this in the context of the US being the biggest contributor to global emissions.
He said the long-term good health of humanity depends first of all on the health of the biosphere. Citing the documentary by former US Vice President Al Gore, Ramsammy said that this “inconvenient truth” about climate change should be given more attention. He noted the spawning of a number of new diseases and strains of diseases and said that these come from the changes global warming brings.
McAllister, in putting forward the motion, said climate change will result in significant transformations including sudden shifts in regional weather patterns, melting of ice glaciers, destruction of ecosystems and sea level rise.
He said sea level rise coupled with an increase in destructive storms will threaten the existence of smaller island states and low-lying coastal communities.
He said 90 per cent of the population and a vast majority of its agricultural and economic activity is located on the coastal plain, which is below sea level.
McAllister called on the government to bring together Guyana’s best and brightest to sit and formulate solutions to Guyana’s problems that climate change would bring. Speaking of the government’s formulation of a climate change committee, he said this body has neither legal standing nor a budget and the Minister of Agriculture could one day wake up and decide that he wants to disband the committee. He said the formation of a commission to deal with the issues related to climate change is the better option.
PNCR-1G Member of Parliament Africo Selman said a public relations campaign should be started because climate change is everybody’s business. She said climate change is a threat to security and that it was imperative that the government sets up a National Commission on Climate Change.
She said too it is imperative that broad-based political participation be utilised. She said the PNCR has always recognised the deleterious effects of climate change.
Speaking on the motion, PPP/C MP Odinga Lumumba said the largest countries of the world are to blame for the plight countries face today. He said small countries like Guyana have to be strong advocates for change and make the large countries responsible for their actions. “They must provide financing to small countries to prepare for climate change,” he charged.
PNCR-1G MP Aubrey Norton said while the motion is timely the government should be commended for their efforts and for composing the National Climate Change Action Plan. But he pointed out that if the National Climate Committee is to be successful in garnering funds overseas, the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and International Cooperation should have representatives on the board.
He said too that the Action Plan is useless without the National Development Strategy, which is not receiving much attention now. He said the interest of Guyana is not at the centre of the plan as it should be; rather, the plan is a response to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Norton said Guyana needs to take new initiatives to mitigate the impacts of climate change and also adapt to the changes that will come as a result. He called for the development of the highlands as one way of preparing for climate change.
In September 2002, Guyana submitted its first National Communication to the UNFCCC and is in the process of drafting the second National Communication.
