…promises to unlock US$135M geared for the LCDS
At Thursday’s presentation of the 2021 Budget, it was announced that the Government will be taking steps to unblock over US$135M not yet released for the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), a project it said the APNU+AFC allowed to become one of its “most shameful economic legacies”.
After the APNU+AFC took up Office in 2015, it shifted focus to the Green State Development Strategy (GSDA): Vision 2040 in 2019 which it believed would better expand Guyana’s national climate change efforts beyond the LCDS.
However, when the PPP/C regained power in 2020, it determined that the GSDS was “loosely defined”, had no source of funding and was without any project to give effect to it.
In November 2020, the Government announced that it has all intention of reverting to the LCDS which it believes provides a clearer path for Guyana to meet its climate commitments and goals.
Presenting the budget, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh said that the budget will repair the damage done to the PPP/C’s LCDS by the former Administration.
He said that these efforts include unblocking over US$135M not yet released for the project to be invested in renewable energy and sustainable land management projects; position Guyana for the emerging international markets for forest climate services; and expanding the LCDS to cater for new developments such as Guyana being an oil-producing nation.
“When the APNU+AFC Government came to Office in 2015, they squandered whatever funds were available and brought the release of the rest of the funds already earned by Guyana to a grinding halt. This culminated in the last payments from Norway being suspended,” Dr. Singh reported.
However, he added: “It falls to this People’s Progressive Party/Civic Goverment to repair that damage.”
