http://www.guyanachronicleonli...4:top-story&Itemid=8
Burning need for high-order political leadership to re-energize climate change process
Thursday, 22 September 2011 03:39
President Jagdeo at UN General Assembly
As he made his last address to the United Nations (UN) General
Assembly, President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday reminded world leaders that
in order to avert the biggest economic and social catastrophe ever
seen, planet earth has to be stabilised, which, at the unlimited limit,
means stabilizing global temperatures at a maximum of two degrees
above pre-industrial levels.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, Presidential Advisor Donald Ramotar and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett at the United Nations 66th General Assembly meeting.
Speaking at the 66th session in New York, President Jagdeo stated that
even though this is known, countries are on track towards perhaps a
four or five-degree rise, according to the United Nations Environment
Programme.
Climate security is one of the challenges the Head of State spoke of
as he outlined several challenges that countries of the world face.
“The disaster that this could represent is beyond anyone’s
comprehension. And the fact that we are not treating it as the
emergency it is will be viewed by history as the biggest derogation of
responsibility by societies and governments to ever take place. How
can we rapidly change this situation before we run out of time?” he
asked.
“We need to move beyond the global insanity that is our response to
climate security. Existing pledges on greenhouse gas emissions under
the Copenhagen Accord will not contain global temperature rises within
limits that will avert catastrophic climate change, and some states
will face extinction,” the Guyanese leader stated.
“Moreover, the anaemic delivery on financial pledges made at
Copenhagen, and formalised in the Cancun Agreements, is leading to a
disastrous breakdown in trust between the developed and developing
world. And the prospects for reaching an international legally binding
agreement on climate change at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, would
appear rather bleak.”
President Jagdeo said he feels strongly that there is a burning need
for ‘high-order political leadership’ to re-energize the climate
change process and deliver credible results.
As he recalled his almost 12 years in office, President Jagdeo told
the UN session that three aspects of the UN’s role over that period is
recollected, namely, that while values which inform the UN’s work
(peace, equality and justice) are timeless, they are not of much use
unless the UN uses them to catalyze practical and meaningful
responses to the contemporary, changing challenges now being faced by
people.
He alluded to how the development of countries such as China, India,
and Brazil is transforming the globe, taking large numbers of
people out of poverty, and creating businesses generating millions of jobs
and growth and capital.
President Jagdeo noted that their development is totally different from
those powers in the past, as they ‘ are rising in a world that is
inter-connected through instant communications capabilities, and
globalized trading and financial systems.
“ What we are witnessing is unlike anything that has happened before, and there are few
communities, and there is no country on the planet that is not
impacted by these changes almost in real time”, he said.
The third aspect he mentioned is the hunt for justice and the
achievement of rights for all that requires expanding the traditional
understanding of security.
Speaking of food security, President Jagdeo noted that with
population increase and rising prosperity, then greater amounts of,
and more nutritious, food would be needed
With respect to energy security, he said , “We are likely to
demand 36% more energy by 2035. How do we generate the energy needed
to meet this demand in a way that helps people everywhere to develop,
and does not choke off economic growth through high prices caused by
energy scarcity?” he asked.
The challenge of resource security was also addressed, and climate security.
“These four challenges represent both opportunity and difficulty. The
difficulties are obvious. But they are opportunities in the sense that
we have enough land, innovation and human ingenuity to feed the world.
We have enough energy to power future prosperity. We have enough
resources to provide the foundations for economic growth. And we know
that if we are to avert climate change, that means using fossil fuels
and land in the right way. Once we start realizing these
opportunities, we can create new platforms for peace, development and
physical security,” he stated.
While it may sound an impossible task, President Jagdeo noted that it
is not, as are solutions to enable these opportunities to be
grasped today, and the United Nations can provide the stage for making
the requisite changes.
“Pursuing this integrated response to our global challenges presents
unparalleled opportunities for peoples across today’s developing
world. The food we need, the energy we generate, the minerals and
other commodities that catalyse economic growth, and the forests and
other land that can be the drivers of climate solutions – these are
all largely in the developing world, and with the right international
action, the developing world can lead the world in the creation of the
transformational shift we need to see people across our planet
be truly healthy and secure.”
Countries therefore need to quickly upgrade their response to
supporting development, food, and energy and resource security.
“We need to see the Doha trade round not as some zero-sum game
between the developed and developing world, but as a critical
component to enable the world to meet the urgent challenges that an
increasingly prosperous, growing population will present.”
Additionally, there is need to intensify efforts to meet the
Millennium Development Goals, and to overcome non-communicable
diseases.
Dealing with the interlinked challenges, he said Guyana, four
years ago, began to look at an integrated sustainable response,
explaining that after one of the most comprehensive national
consultations on climate change, Guyana began implementing its Low
Carbon Development Strategy.
“ We are maintaining over 99.5% of our forest cover; Norway is paying
Guyana for climate services we provide; we are using some of these
payments to eliminate 92% of our energy-related emissions, and we are
using the rest of the payments, coupled with domestic resources, to
shift our entire economy onto a low-carbon, low-deforestation,
climate-resilient trajectory.”
As he spoke of holding close the new world order that is now upon
countries, and finding a way that enables the new powers to continue
their peaceful emergence in a way that lifts the possibilities for
people everywhere, action from individual countries is not enough,
hence, the UN and other international bodies need to modernise fast,
and the international system needs to correct the inconsistencies
between aid, trade and climate policies outlined by him.
The Guyanese leader also spoke of the UN Security Council needing to
be more democratic, transparent and legitimate, as 54 African countries
have no permanent seat on the Council, neither do the 33 countries
that comprise Latin America and Caribbean region, and assured that
Guyana strongly supports early reform of the Council through an
expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories and
enhanced representation of developing countries.
He expressed that, “the developed world needs to catch up with the
realisation that the world has changed, and it is in their vital
national interests to make the changes to the global system that will
make progress possible. Food security is not just about people in poor
countries – prices in Europe and the United States are rising too.”
Burning need for high-order political leadership to re-energize climate change process
Thursday, 22 September 2011 03:39
President Jagdeo at UN General Assembly
As he made his last address to the United Nations (UN) General
Assembly, President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday reminded world leaders that
in order to avert the biggest economic and social catastrophe ever
seen, planet earth has to be stabilised, which, at the unlimited limit,
means stabilizing global temperatures at a maximum of two degrees
above pre-industrial levels.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, Presidential Advisor Donald Ramotar and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett at the United Nations 66th General Assembly meeting.
Speaking at the 66th session in New York, President Jagdeo stated that
even though this is known, countries are on track towards perhaps a
four or five-degree rise, according to the United Nations Environment
Programme.
Climate security is one of the challenges the Head of State spoke of
as he outlined several challenges that countries of the world face.
“The disaster that this could represent is beyond anyone’s
comprehension. And the fact that we are not treating it as the
emergency it is will be viewed by history as the biggest derogation of
responsibility by societies and governments to ever take place. How
can we rapidly change this situation before we run out of time?” he
asked.
“We need to move beyond the global insanity that is our response to
climate security. Existing pledges on greenhouse gas emissions under
the Copenhagen Accord will not contain global temperature rises within
limits that will avert catastrophic climate change, and some states
will face extinction,” the Guyanese leader stated.
“Moreover, the anaemic delivery on financial pledges made at
Copenhagen, and formalised in the Cancun Agreements, is leading to a
disastrous breakdown in trust between the developed and developing
world. And the prospects for reaching an international legally binding
agreement on climate change at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, would
appear rather bleak.”
President Jagdeo said he feels strongly that there is a burning need
for ‘high-order political leadership’ to re-energize the climate
change process and deliver credible results.
As he recalled his almost 12 years in office, President Jagdeo told
the UN session that three aspects of the UN’s role over that period is
recollected, namely, that while values which inform the UN’s work
(peace, equality and justice) are timeless, they are not of much use
unless the UN uses them to catalyze practical and meaningful
responses to the contemporary, changing challenges now being faced by
people.
He alluded to how the development of countries such as China, India,
and Brazil is transforming the globe, taking large numbers of
people out of poverty, and creating businesses generating millions of jobs
and growth and capital.
President Jagdeo noted that their development is totally different from
those powers in the past, as they ‘ are rising in a world that is
inter-connected through instant communications capabilities, and
globalized trading and financial systems.
“ What we are witnessing is unlike anything that has happened before, and there are few
communities, and there is no country on the planet that is not
impacted by these changes almost in real time”, he said.
The third aspect he mentioned is the hunt for justice and the
achievement of rights for all that requires expanding the traditional
understanding of security.
Speaking of food security, President Jagdeo noted that with
population increase and rising prosperity, then greater amounts of,
and more nutritious, food would be needed
With respect to energy security, he said , “We are likely to
demand 36% more energy by 2035. How do we generate the energy needed
to meet this demand in a way that helps people everywhere to develop,
and does not choke off economic growth through high prices caused by
energy scarcity?” he asked.
The challenge of resource security was also addressed, and climate security.
“These four challenges represent both opportunity and difficulty. The
difficulties are obvious. But they are opportunities in the sense that
we have enough land, innovation and human ingenuity to feed the world.
We have enough energy to power future prosperity. We have enough
resources to provide the foundations for economic growth. And we know
that if we are to avert climate change, that means using fossil fuels
and land in the right way. Once we start realizing these
opportunities, we can create new platforms for peace, development and
physical security,” he stated.
While it may sound an impossible task, President Jagdeo noted that it
is not, as are solutions to enable these opportunities to be
grasped today, and the United Nations can provide the stage for making
the requisite changes.
“Pursuing this integrated response to our global challenges presents
unparalleled opportunities for peoples across today’s developing
world. The food we need, the energy we generate, the minerals and
other commodities that catalyse economic growth, and the forests and
other land that can be the drivers of climate solutions – these are
all largely in the developing world, and with the right international
action, the developing world can lead the world in the creation of the
transformational shift we need to see people across our planet
be truly healthy and secure.”
Countries therefore need to quickly upgrade their response to
supporting development, food, and energy and resource security.
“We need to see the Doha trade round not as some zero-sum game
between the developed and developing world, but as a critical
component to enable the world to meet the urgent challenges that an
increasingly prosperous, growing population will present.”
Additionally, there is need to intensify efforts to meet the
Millennium Development Goals, and to overcome non-communicable
diseases.
Dealing with the interlinked challenges, he said Guyana, four
years ago, began to look at an integrated sustainable response,
explaining that after one of the most comprehensive national
consultations on climate change, Guyana began implementing its Low
Carbon Development Strategy.
“ We are maintaining over 99.5% of our forest cover; Norway is paying
Guyana for climate services we provide; we are using some of these
payments to eliminate 92% of our energy-related emissions, and we are
using the rest of the payments, coupled with domestic resources, to
shift our entire economy onto a low-carbon, low-deforestation,
climate-resilient trajectory.”
As he spoke of holding close the new world order that is now upon
countries, and finding a way that enables the new powers to continue
their peaceful emergence in a way that lifts the possibilities for
people everywhere, action from individual countries is not enough,
hence, the UN and other international bodies need to modernise fast,
and the international system needs to correct the inconsistencies
between aid, trade and climate policies outlined by him.
The Guyanese leader also spoke of the UN Security Council needing to
be more democratic, transparent and legitimate, as 54 African countries
have no permanent seat on the Council, neither do the 33 countries
that comprise Latin America and Caribbean region, and assured that
Guyana strongly supports early reform of the Council through an
expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories and
enhanced representation of developing countries.
He expressed that, “the developed world needs to catch up with the
realisation that the world has changed, and it is in their vital
national interests to make the changes to the global system that will
make progress possible. Food security is not just about people in poor
countries – prices in Europe and the United States are rising too.”
