Jagdeo raps Opposition’s “bullyism” during consultation to reverse APNU+AFC’s unrealistic renewable energy pledge

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Former Member

Jagdeo raps Opposition’s “bullyism” during consultation to reverse APNU+AFC’s unrealistic renewable energy pledge

October 13, 2021, Source - https://www.inewsguyana.com/ja...wable-energy-pledge/

During a visit to Paris in 2016 by the then President David Granger, he had promised the international community that Guyana would achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025, but then Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had derided this commitment as an unrealistic pipe dream.

Sure enough, in 2018, the then Head of the Office of Climate Change (OCC), Janelle Christian had admitted that Granger’s target was not achievable and would have to be reviewed.

On Monday, Vice President Jagdeo led a national stakeholder consultation at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) aimed at updating Guyana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) ahead of the convening of the United Nations COP26 summit.

The stakeholder consultation did not go smoothly, however, as A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) Amanza Walton-Desir, who, along with fellow MP Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, were there by Government invitation, gave a speech denouncing the stakeholder consultation.

According to the MPs, the consultation was not broad enough and did not include women and youth, as well as the Indigenous community.

And while she claimed that the updated NDCs would condemn Guyana to a carbonised future, Walton-Desir was not able to identify any specific issues with the NDCs.

In his address to the attendees, Jagdeo took Walton-Desir and, by extension, the APNU/AFC Opposition to task, noting that the Government had no choice but to revise the NDCs downwards since the former Government made a lofty commitment and then for five years did little by way of renewable projects to make it a reality.

“How do you raise ambition from 100 per cent pledge? In fact, this proposal that we have here would be lowering ambition. And that is what we wanted to avoid. We did not want to say to the rest of the world that it’s impossible, the last Government made a mess of everything and it’s impossible to achieve what they had pledged by 2025,” the Vice President noted.

“For a very long time, we debated whether we should submit new NDCs. Because globally, it would be seen as lowering ambition while everyone else is talking about increasing ambition (to lowering carbon emissions). Eventually we said, we can’t continue to mislead the world. That has to change.”

As a consequence, Jagdeo noted that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government came to the consultations with the view of lowering the 100 per cent commitment. Additionally, he explained that unlike the former Government who he said only sought soundbites with little to back them up, the PPP/C Government has a detailed road map for achieving the NDCs.

“The gas-to-energy project will, hopefully, by 2024, 2025, cut our emissions by 50 per cent. And then with solar, we hope to do between 30 to 50 megawatts of solar. And with the hydro, we’ve just opened the tender for hydro, we’re hoping that by 2027, we will probably achieve a 70 per cent cut in emissions,” he said.

Jagdeo noted that with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) currently supplying approximately 140 megawatts of power, 500 megawatts of new power from renewable sources will severely cut emissions. And according to him, nothing has changed when it comes to the adaptation measures that were agreed on in previous consultations under the former Government.

“That’s realistic. We have projects to achieve that. We don’t just talk. And that is the major change. Nothing has changed on the adaptation side. We have to prevent our sea from coming in and flooding us. We have to manage water, so we don’t get flooded out… we have to tackle drought in maybe the hinterland areas,” Jagdeo said.

During a subsequent interview on social media, Jagdeo further highlighted how the APNU/AFC’s pledge was unrealistic.

“No developing country or developed country has been able to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy or can achieve it by 2025, yet they promise it and they did nothing, not a single project to get there and they want us to keep that,” he contended.

“We had to revise this target to a realistic level and that is why the part of the proposal we preferred is to cut the emissions by 50 per cent so we achieve at least 50 per cent reduction of green house gases by 2025…”

He also spoke about efforts to revive the Amaila Falls project which was scrapped by the APNU/AFC.

“We are now going out to tender between 30 to 50 megawatts of solar power and we just opened the tender for the Amaila Falls…so when the Amaila Falls is constructed, we triple the amount of energy that we produce in Guyana but lower our emission by 70 per cent, not even 100 percent like they promised and that’s realistic, that is what we can do and we’re working towards it.”

Jagdeo further condemned the posture of the Opposition MP Walton-Desir during the consultation.

“What we saw…was a demonstration of typical low-life behavior from the Opposition. They came there, and they had Amanza Walton the same Amanza Walton who said that Indo-Guyanese are mentally lazy, she came there and hijacked the forum.”

“She conned the presenter in saying that she wanted a place to rest her notes and then took over the podium, breaching all the COVID protocol, took over the podium, typical low-life behaviour, bullyism as it’s known, that is synonymous with her character.”

“Then they berated the government on how we’re acting unlawfully and unconstitutionally because we’re not consulting, forgetting that she was invited to consultation to prepare the final document.”

“Imagine Amanza Walton standing in the Convention Centre talking about unconstitutional behaviour, the same place where the recount took place where they were trying to steal the elections,” Jagdeo argued.

The COP26 Summit, which will be held in Glasgow, Scotland next month, will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Jagdeo has been a leading figure in Guyana’s efforts to prepare for the summit, with the former President leading an expert team to Suriname last month to coordinate a common strategy with the Surinamese Government to deal with issues of climate change and the environment.

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Former Member

@Former Member posted:
Jagdeo raps Opposition’s “bullyism” during consultation to reverse APNU+AFC’s unrealistic renewable energy pledge
October 13, 2021, Source - https://www.inewsguyana.com/ja...wable-energy-pledge/

He also spoke about efforts to revive the Amaila Falls project which was scrapped by the APNU/AFC.
“We are now going out to tender between 30 to 50 megawatts of solar power and we just opened the tender for the Amaila Falls…so when the Amaila Falls is constructed, we triple the amount of energy that we produce in Guyana but lower our emission by 70 per cent, not even 100 percent like they promised and that’s realistic, that is what we can do and we’re working towards it.”

Shortly, more progress will be achieved for the realization of the Amaila Falls hydroelectric project.

The Amaila Falls Amaila Falls

10/13/213:06 PM

SpugumJunior Member

Jagdeo is back peddling faster than a Lamborghini in reverse

Oct 13, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The main Opposition is on solid grounds in its criticisms of the last-minute consultations, engineered by the government, to decide on Guyana’s National Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.
As representatives of some of the people they have pointed out, the consultations which commenced on Monday are indeed a sham and far from the fair, open and equitable process that would have involved the genuine participation of Guyanese. The PPP/C had a long time to consult widely and properly on this matter but did not do so with the result, that it is in a last minute risk to bulldoze consultations down the throats of Guyanese.
National Determined Contributions (NDCs) are undertakings which each country agrees to in order to ensure the overall reduction of emissions under the Paris Agreement. Each country is required to state what it will do to reduce emissions, and these are deemed its NDCs.
The APNU+AFC representatives have justifiable reason to feel that the consultations are a charade. They describe the outcome as a fait accompli, meaning that the government has already decided what it plans to do and simply wants to rubber stamp it through these last-minute and rushed consultations.
In fact, the country’s Second Vice President, in an interview in last Sunday’s Stabroek News, made comments which his critics can justifiably claim to be prejudicial to the consultations. The country’s Vice President made statements indicating what the government is likely to do in terms of its NDCs. The Second Vice President went as far as even placing a price tag of US$1.6M on the assistance required.
In that interview, the Second Vice President said that the renewable energy NDC set by the APNU+AFC was wild and unrealistic. He said the new NDCs would likely see the halving of the 100 percent renewable energy target set by Granger.
The Granger administration had agreed to ‘near-100 percent’ (not 100 percent) renewable energy by 2025. This is clearly stated in the Green State Development Strategy. However, in its submission to the UNFCC, the APNU+AFC, said that it believed that “Guyana can develop a 100 percent renewable power supply by 2025 and that it would undertake an assessment of potential renewable energy sources, including an independent review of the Amaila Falls Project.
Jagdeo, however, has to be joking when he says that this was a wild and unrealistic target. It was not. He himself had touted the benefits of the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric towards Guyana’s renewable energy thrust and had said that had the APNU not prevented its implementation, it would have been completed in four years.
Amaila was Jagdeo’s pet project and the one which he felt held the greatest hope for Guyana’s renewable energy thrust. Jagdeo’s Low Carbon Development Strategy claimed that Amaila would enable Guyana “to switch from nearly 100 percent dependence on fossil fuel-based electricity generation to nearly 100 percent clean, renewable energy supplies.”
The LCDS therefore speaks about 100 percent clean, renewable energy supply. So how come this very target under Granger has become wild and unrealistic?
If Amaila is so transformational and could still be built by 2025 why is Jagdeo contending that 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 is unrealistic? Has he forgotten that the independent review undertaken by Norconsult found that the only realistic path for Guyana towards an emission free electricity sector is by developing its hydropower potential and the fastest way forward is to maintain Amaila?
Jagdeo is now changing his tune. He now wants to reduce the LCDS and Granger’s target by half. But why would he want to do this when he has the means to enable Guyana to have nearly 100 percent clean renewable energy?
He clearly does not understand the Paris Agreement. The agreement states that each successive NDC must improve on the previous contribution and reflect the country’s highest possible ambition. Granger’s ‘near-100 percent’ is and should remain the country’s highest possible ambition.
A 50 percent reduction is not a progression on the current contribution. And it is not Guyana’s highest possible ambition, especially considering that the LCDS had aimed, like Granger, for near-100 percent renewable energy.
But there is a reason why Jagdeo is back peddling. He does not want 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 or even 2030 because that would cancel out the need for the gas-to-shore project. Natural gas is not considered a clean or renewable energy source. Jagdeo is desperate for the gas-to-shore project, even though natural gas is not a renewable energy source. And, do you know why?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...borghini-in-reverse/

10/13/216:57 PM