Guyana named among developing states to receive World Bank climate change financing
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| Published on Thursday, July 24, 2008 |
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By Kevin Lindon
Caribbean Net News Guyana Correspondent
Email: kevin@caribbeannetnews.com
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Guyana is one of 14 states that have been selected to receive funding to engage in programmes that help combat tropical deforestation and climate change.
Guyana, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar; Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama and Nepal, Lao PDR, and Vietnam will all receive funding from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) in an innovative approach to finance efforts to combat climate change.
In a statement released by the World Bank, the FCPF is aimed at reducing deforestation and forest degradation by compensating developing countries for greenhouse gas emission reductions. The partnership, approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on September 25, 2007, became functionally operational on June 25, 2008.
The 14 tropical and sub-tropical countries are the first developing nations to receive grant support as they build their capacity for Reducing Emission from Deforestation Forest Degradation (REDD).
“Deforestation and forest degradation together are the second leading man-made cause of global warming,” said Joëlle Chassard, Manager of the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit. “They are responsible for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the main source of national emissions in many developing countries. For that reason, we have been eager to initiate this partnership and assist countries while building a body of knowledge on how best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by protecting forests and helping the people who benefit from them.”
Fourteen states have been selected as the first developing country members of an innovative partnership and international financing mechanism to combat tropical deforestation and climate change.
The decision as to which countries would receive initial funding came at a two-day meeting in Paris of the FCPF Steering Committee. The committee was made up of an equal number of developing and industrialised countries, plus observers from international organizations, non-governmental institutions, and forest-dependent indigenous peoples and other forest dwellers. The committee was assisted in its decision by an independent Technical Advisory Panel comprised of experts in different technical fields and different regions of the world.
Each of the nine industrialised countries that formalised their participation in the partnership was present at the Paris meeting, including Australia , Finland , France (the French Development Agency), Japan , Norway , Spain , Switzerland , the United Kingdom and the United States . Together, they have committed to contribute about US$ 82 million to the FCPF.
More contributions from the public and private sector are expected in the coming months.
“The FCPF is an important mechanism for giving effect to what was agreed at the Bali climate change meetings in 2007 – that donors and developing countries should work together to trial approaches to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,” said Robin Davies, Assistant Director General of the Sustainable Development Group, AusAID.
“The selection of this initial group of developing country partners is an important first step in improving global understanding of ways to reduce forest carbon emissions and lift forest-dependent communities out of poverty.” Davies added.
Meanwhile, National Clean Development Office Coordinator in Bolivia, Gisela Ulloa said that the FCPF had created a “true partnership”, where developing countries and developed countries, alongside the World Bank, were working in a transparent and participative way to learn and support each other in the readiness process for REDD.
“Selection into the program will now allow Bolivia to build its capacity to undertake actions to slow deforestation and to become an early actor in the emerging market for REDD,” Ulloa said. “By joining with other tropical nations and potential carbon market actors, we expect our pace of learning, preparation, and action to address climate change to be faster and better focused on the conditions and needs of our country."
At their meeting last December in Bali, the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to start demonstration activities on REDD. The FCPF, which was announced by the World Bank at the Bali Conference, will help to finance some of these demonstration activities. | | | | Reads : 656 | | | |
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