Guyana gets cash to boost climate consultation, communication

Last Updated on Thursday, 10 December 2015, 1:12 by GxMedia

Minister of Governance, with responsibility for Natural Resources and the Environment, Raphael Trotman, today, signed a US$300,000 grant with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on the side lines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC), which is currently being held in Paris, France.

The Ministry of the Presidency said in a statement that Minister Trotman and Ousseynou Nakoulima, Director of Country Programming for the GCF, signed the agreement in the presence of Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan; Dr. Kenrick Leslie, Executive Director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre; and other dignitaries. The money is to be spent over the next year.

The objective of the agreement is to support Guyana in strengthening the institutional capacity of its National Designated Authority (NDA) to implement its responsibilities to the GCF by preparing climate-related country programmes through a multi-stakeholder engagement process.

The resources will also be used to enhance Guyana’s readiness to access and deliver international climate finance through targeted institutional strengthening. The scaling up of the NDA’s capacity is one of the preliminary steps toward Guyana becoming accredited to the GCF, and thus to access directly this climate financing modality.

At the end of the project year, it is anticipated that capacity would be boosted to facilitate effective consultation and communication on climate-related issues and accessing the GCF. There will be extensive knowledge on climate and finance priorities, a system for reviewing proposals and issuing recommendations (or no-objections) will be established; the development of capacity and systems to monitor, evaluate and report on the activities of the Fund and other relevant finance mechanisms, the establishment of institutions; and information, including in local languages, on procedures of the Fund disseminated to country stakeholders, would be readily available.

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (5Cs), the only accredited entity to the GCF in the Caribbean and one of only 20 entities accredited globally to date, will act as the Delivery Partner for this project.

In the meantime, Guyana engaged the Coalition of Rainforest Nations (CfRN) to advance the proposal for the establishment of a new International Council of Rainforest Nations. Minister Trotman, accompanied by Chief Negotiator, Mr. Andrew Bishop, held discussions with the Minster of Environment of Panama, Mirei Endara, who chairs the CfRN.

The proposed Council will seek to facilitate cooperation among like-minded rainforest countries, particularly in the implementation of REDD Plus initiatives. The REDD Plus mechanism provides monetary incentives to countries for reducing deforestation and sustainably managing their forests.

The expectation is that the Council will provide greater leverage for accessing the means of implementation from innovative private sources, and supplementing public sources under the UNFCCC. This will open up new funding opportunities for rainforest countries, of which Guyana is internationally recognised as a leader in the sustainable management and conservation of its forests.

Minister Trotman expressed support for the initiative and indicated Guyana’s interest in partnering with the entity. He undertook to seek Government’s endorsement on the initiative.