Head of the Office for Climate Change (OCC), Shyam Nokta when contacted yesterday, would only say that the tweaked LCDS – which is expected to integrate views from the recently held national consultation and the forest preservation agreement signed between Guyana and Norway; will be released “shortly”. Last month, the OCC had said in a statement that the updated LCDS would have been released within two weeks and before the Copenhagen meeting of the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began. It was stated that the LCDS is expected to receive considerable international attention at the 11-day summit.
The OCC statement had said that the updated LCDS will show how the Guyana-Norway US$250M pact over five years is the start of a phased approach to integrate Guyana’s climate services into the global economy where ultimately a value is placed on Guyana’s forests that make them more economically valuable alive than dead. The LCDS will outline how this could happen over the next decade and how Norway’s payments will catalyse the start of that process, it had said.
Yesterday, Nokta could not give a date on when the document would be released except to say that this would be done “very soon” and an official announcement would be made. This would be done by President Bharrat Jagdeo who is leading Guyana’s delegation to the climate summit, he stated. Office of the President Press Liaison Officer, Kwame McCoy had last week said that the updated LDCS would be released “shortly”. When contacted yesterday, he stated that he would have to be advised by Nokta but was told that they are “working on it”.
Notka did not say who are the members of Guyana’s delegation, stating that this would be revealed by the relevant authorities. He said that Jagdeo would be attending the high level segments of the summit. The only other member of Guyana’s delegation to Copenhagen who has been identified thus far is Chairperson of the National Toshaos Council, Yvonne Pearson.
Preliminary meetings have already begun in Copenhagen and up to yesterday, 105 world leaders had pledged to attend the summit signaling growing momentum for a deal. A legally binding deal is already out of reach for the UN talks with only a political deal possible.
