Dept. of Environment, Office of Climate Change to be merged

The Department of Environment and the Office of Climate Change (OCC), which fall under the purview of the Office of the President, will soon be merged as one department for greater efficiency.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo made this announcement on Friday at a press conference and the Village Voice Guyana has been unable to verify whether these changes will affect the employment of certain staff.

“I’m in the process of merging that and creating a Department of Environment of Environment and Climate Change because there has been a great deal of overlap. A lot of people working on projects in a very isolated way, almost in silos, without any order or any regard as to the outcome. So, there has not been a clearly defined goal of what we want to achieve,” he said.

The Department of Environment was formally launched in September 2017 by former President David Granger to achieve a holistic approach to environmental conservation and management, eventually facilitating the country’s ‘green’ agenda.

Meanwhile, the OCC was established in 2009. It was originally conceived to support the preparation and implementation of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) but expanding its role to lead Guyana´s national climate change efforts.

The Vice President said that the former Administration’s Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 was “loosely defined”, had no source of funding and was without any project to give effect to it.

“Many of the people I spoke with didn’t even know how their work fit into this. So, we have already made it clear, the President has said that the LCDS is going to be the overarching document that would guide our climate actions domestically,” he said.

After the APNU+AFC took office, it launched the GSDS in 2019. It was said to have “surpassed” the LCDS in several areas. However, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has all intention of reverting to the LCDS which they believe provides a clearer path for Guyana to meet its climate commitments and goals.

Jagdeo said that the LCDS will be improved and while the Government will see a pathway to prosperity that is non-polluted, this will not hamper Guyana’s economic development.